KEY POINTS:
Benjamin Sila, whose brother is on trial for murder, has admitted his part in the Edgeware Rd tragedy where two 16-year-old girls were killed and eight people were injured.
"I knew it was my fault, I knew I was in the wrong," Benjamin Sila told the High Court
at Christchurch yesterday at the murder trial of Lipine Sila in front of Justice John Fogarty and a jury.
Benjamin, Sila, a 20-year-old small goods butcher, told the court he "was a bit drunk" when he arrived at the Edgeware Rd party, the Christchurch Court News website reports.
Lipine Sila had driven him and his mates to the party, but didn't want to join in, so he sat in the car.
He warned Ben Sila to stay out of trouble and not to cause any.
Benjamin went to the corner of Manchester St and Edgeware Rd and saw people he had previously had trouble with.
He asked them what their problem was and asked if anyone wanted to fight him.
While fighting, his mate "Junior" got hit with a bottle and his hand was cut.
He wrapped a T-shirt around it and Benjamin said he was "a bit angry and lost the plot a bit".
He picked a bottle up off the footpath and threw it through the back window of a Subaru, breaking it. Someone who knew the owner of the car, Joseph Muir, and his mates approached Benjamin and another fight started. "I know my brother just came from nowhere to help me out," he said.
He saw Lipine get hit on the head with a bottle. "I kinda got scared and took off."
He ran to Bishop St and hid on a property there for a while.
When he got back, Junior was sitting in a car with Connor Bensley, who drove them to the hospital.
When he got home from the hospital Lipine was at the house.
"I didn't want to talk too much about it because I knew he was angry when I took off from the fight," Benjamin said.
Junior and Benjamin went to have a look at the car in the back yard "to see if what I heard at the hospital was true", Benjamin said. The car was covered in cardboard.
After Lipine and Benjamin walked Junior home, Benjamin went to sleep on the couch and was woken up by the police at the door.
Cross-examined by defence lawyer Lee-Lee Heah, Benjamin described the scene at the party as "like a boxing fight, having a rest and then getting back up".
Miss Heah said that Benjamin was "in a bad space" that night and he was "messed up about something in his personal life". He said he did not go back to look for Lipine on Edgeware Rd before going to the hospital, as he was afraid he would be subjected to violence if he did.
Benjamin said that his brother didn't blame him for what happened.
- NZPA
