KEY POINTS:
Jule Patrick Burns refused to undergo cross-examination by the Crown yesterday when he appealed against his conviction for the 2005 murder of Christchurch prostitute Susie Sutherland.
Burns' refusal meant the Court of Appeal did not hear evidence from him and also had to decide whether to rule out his written affidavit entirely, or give it some weight.
The court has been hearing appeals in Christchurch this week, with Justice William Young, Justice David Baragwanath, and Justice Paul Heath sitting at yesterday's hearing.
Burns' counsel, Douglas Taffs, said his client withdrew his appeal against his sentence for the murder, in which Miss Sutherland's naked body was found in a vacant section in Peterborough St where she often took clients. She had been strangled.
But he appealed against the conviction, challenging various details of the Crown case including the identification of Burns and his car.
After hearing submissions from Mr Taffs for almost an hour, Justice Young stopped him and gave an outline of the Crown case against Burns.
"It is impossible to say that it wasn't open to the jury to convict him," he said. Mr Taffs also challenged the paperwork relating to the police's gathering of two DNA samples from Burns, but the justices said that the incorrect wording on the forms used would not have affected the outcome.
They showed Burns' DNA on a condom left at the murder scene - he admitted having sex with Miss Sutherland earlier in the night - and on material found under the dead woman's fingernails.
Witnesses referred to scratches or marks on his face in the days after the murder.
Mr Taffs also spent more than an hour questioning Burns' defence counsel at his High Court trial, Rupert Glover, about the conduct of the trial.
In particular, he wanted to know about inquiries Mr Glover made concerning allegations that Miss Sutherland had stolen $7000 from the mother of a Christchurch underworld figure.
The defence case at the trial had been that Miss Sutherland was a drug addict with debts and enemies, and was killed by someone else.
But Mr Glover said one particular witness had not been called because she had retracted her statement after further discussions with the police. It was not supported by other witnesses, and would have been "tissue-thin".
The investigation by a private detective had come up against "an impenetrable wall of silence and denial".
Mr Glover said the connections had not been with local gangs.
"But we are certainly talking about the underbelly of Christchurch."
Mr Taffs said it would still have been open to Mr Glover to call the woman, treat her as a hostile witness, and allege that the police had interfered with her evidence.
Burns, 32, is serving a life term. The justices reserved their decision.
- NZPA
