Arrogance of a convicted police killer

John Skinner turned his back to the courtroom and gestured defiantly after being found guilty of murdering a police officer.

After deliberating for nine hours, an Auckland jury yesterday found Skinner guilty of murdering Sergeant Don Wilkinson during a covert police operation in September 2008.

He was also found guilty of attempting to murder another officer and of assault with a firearm.

Co-accused Iain Clegg was found not guilty of murder and attempted murder but guilty of manslaughter.

Both men have been remanded in custody until sentencing on August 30.

After the verdicts Crown prosecutor Simon Moore, SC, said he believed it was the first time in New Zealand, and possibly the world, that an airgun had been used as a weapon in a murder trial.

"The modern technology of airguns is such that they are seriously lethal weapons in the wrong hands."

He said they were not toys and were "extremely powerful" and the jury clearly decided Skinner knew that.

Mr Moore praised the Wilkinson family for their "wonderfully dignified vigil" throughout the month-long trial.

A spokesman for Mr Wilkinson's family, cousin Robert Laurie, said the family deeply felt Mr Wilkinson's loss every day and thanked police for their support.

"His family, friends and colleagues have a permanent void in their lives which will never be filled," he said.

Skinner's partner Tina Preece said outside court that justice hadn't been done.

"I think it was a very unfair decision. The only reason they came to that decision is because he was a police officer. If it had been a normal person off the street, a thug or a criminal, it would have been a different story," she said.