Court hears how killer tried to cover his tracks

Leanne Kingston. Photo / Supplied

Leanne Kingston's killer tried to cover their tracks by cleaning up bloodstains at the murder scene.

Ms Kingston was found dead on her toilet floor by her sister in August, last year, after she failed to pick up her youngest daughter from school.

Her estranged partner and the father of her four children, Cary Thurgood is on trial for her murder at the Auckland High Court. He has pleaded not guilty.

ESR scientist Dianne Crenfeldt is giving evidence today and has told the court that she found evidence of diluted blood throughout the toilet area of Ms Kingston's Papakura home.

One of Ms Kingston's boots was found in the toilet bowl and the other behind the toilet. Her toilet door was hanging by one hinge.

"Some areas adjacent to the hinges showed remains of white residue which, in my opinion, there was an attempt made to clean up inside the toilet door," Ms Crenfeldt said.

She said there was evidence of blood spatter in the toilet that indicated impact. The patterns of blood suggested that the blood had come from in front of Ms Kingston's toilet, flew through the air and collided with the back wall.

A blood stained vacuum cleaner and fridge veggie draw were found in front of the toilet. Ms Crenfeldt also ran tests on a small piece of latex found nearby.

A series of blood stained shoe prints were also found in Ms Kingston's home when scienctists carried out luminol testing - a light test which shows up blood in the dark.

The same test was carried out at Thurgood's home nearby. Traces of blood were found in his garage. A pair of jeans were found in the washing machine. Blood found on the fly of the jeans later tested positive to Ms Kingston's DNA.

Yesterday ambulance and police officers described finding Ms Kingston dead.

Detective Michelle Gillespie was one of the first on the scene and used a neighbour's ladder to look through the smashed toilet window at Ms Kingston's home.

"The window had been smashed from the inside because most of the glass was on the outside," she said.

Detective Matthew Stickland was the officer in charge of the scene. He said Ms Kingston's face had bruising to both cheeks and eyes.

There was also a large cut to her neck and broken skin on her face and chest.

Mr Stickland said there were indentations in the walls which police cut out and took as evidence. The portions of the wall were shown to the jury yesterday.

St John advanced paramedic Raymond Hirst had his evidence read to the court and told of arriving on the scene and meeting Ms Kingston's sister Lisa Whittle.

He said Mrs Whittle told him: "My sister is in there. She is dead in the toilet."

Inside Mr Hirst said he could see a large amount of clotted blood on the linoleum floor that had seeped into the hallway carpet.

Justice Mark Cooper told the jury that there were some "unpleasant photographs" in the Crown photo book.

"The technique we adopt is to close the booklet rather than dwelling on some of the nasty stuff," Justice Cooper said.

ESR forensic scientist Heidi Baker tested items of clothing found at Thurgood's home. Blood was found on the fly of a pair of jeans shorts and there was "extremely strong scientific support" that the blood came from Ms Kingston.

A jacket, track pants and gloves found in a skip at Thurgood's work place all tested positive for Ms Kingston's DNA.

Crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb told the court in his opening address on Monday that Thurgood had originally blamed his son for the killing. Thurgood had told police that he had received a confession phone call from his son and had gone to Ms Kingston's to clean up and "save his son".

Thurgood pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice on the first day of his trial.

His friend, John Moorby, has also been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice after telling police he had also received a confession phone call from Thurgood's son. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial has been set down for three weeks and up to 70 witnesses are due to be called.