Dimetrius Pairama, 17, was found dead in a rusty container outside a vacant state house in Māngere in July 2018. Photo / Supplied
Dimetrius Pairama, 17, was found dead in a rusty container outside a vacant state house in Māngere in July 2018. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A witness who was 14 years old when she helped police gather enough information to arrest three murder suspects over the torture and forced hanging of 17-year-old Dimetrius “Precious” Pairama seemed more reluctant today as she recounted the events again for a new jury.
“I’m sorry, could we take a break?” the woman, now 19, asked after less than an hour of questioning, wiping away tears and moving suddenly off camera as she testified via audio-video feed from a remote witness box in the High Court at Auckland.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of Pairama’s death inside a vacant Māngere state home. It’s also the fifth time the woman, who has immunity from prosecution and permanent name suppression, has gone to a police station or a courthouse to detail Pairama’s final hours.
She first spoke to police in July and August 2018 in three videotaped interviews that were played for jurors yesterday and today. In them, she described in matter-of-fact detail how the 17-year-old was repeatedly punched and stomped, forced to disrobe and tied naked to a chair with soiled underwear stuffed into her mouth, burned with a makeshift blowtorch, had powder poured in her eyes and was ultimately forced to choose the method of her murder: via hanging or stabbing.
The teen testified a year after Pairama’s death at the joint murder trial of Ashley Winter, who was 27 at the time of the killing, and 24-year-old Kerry Te Amo. Both were found guilty.
But the third murder defendant, who was 16 at the time, did not go on trial until this week. So the witness was called again - appearing in the same courthouse but a different room so she wouldn’t have to see the person who she was giving evidence against.
“I don’t remember,” the witness frequently responded today as prosecutors asked her questions about that day, sometimes prompting her with quotes from her police interviews.
The witness said she hadn’t known Winter or Te Amo very well prior to the killing, but she did know the current defendant, now 21, who also has name suppression.
A woman with name suppression is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of having helped kidnap and murder 17-year-old Dimetrius Pairama in July 2018. Photo / Michael Craig
Pairama had gone with the group willingly that morning from Queen St in central Auckland to the Māngere property, the witness said, explaining that she was shocked when Winter pulled her aside and told her the plan to give Pairama “a hiding”.
“We were just supposed to find shelter, just so we could stay off the streets,” she recalled today. “That was the whole plan of going there, just so we could go somewhere warm.”
The witness described Winter as not only the ringleader of the attack but someone who used threats of gang violence to get the others to help her abuse Pairama.
“To me, they looked hesitant,” the witness said of Te Amo and the current defendant. “It was their body language that gave it away.”
Defence lawyer David Niven acknowledged to jurors at the outset of this week’s trial that his client was present for “the catalogue of horrible things that happened to Ms Pairama” and participated in some of the torture. But he said she did not aid or encourage the murder and she was not a willing participant.
The witness said she pulled the current defendant and Te Amo aside at one point that morning - she couldn’t remember exactly when.
“I had a little chat to them about the situation, that I was hesitant, and asked them to stop what was happening, because it was all happening so fast,” she testified. “They agreed.”
But Winter must have caught wind of the conversation and convinced them to keep at it, the witness said.
“She kept saying things about gangs and stuff and coming after our families and us if we didn’t participate,” she testified.
“Their mind changed. They agreed with Ashley,” she said, quickly adding an addendum to the statement: “When I say agree, it’s as in they had to - not [that] they wanted to - because they were threatened into doing it.”
Ashley Winter, left, and Kerry Te Amo were both convicted of murdering Dimetrius Pairama. Photos / File
Prosecutor Claire Robertson pointed to the witness’ police interviews from five years earlier in which she talked about the motivation for the attacks. While Winter was angry about one matter, the current defendant was also angry about another situation in which she thought Pairama has been “talking shit” about her to another person on Facebook, the witness previously told police.
But on the witness stand today, she downplayed the significance of Facebook drama during the attacks.
“It wasn’t a big deal to [the current defendant],” she said, suggesting that rather than angry the defendant appeared “confused, like she’s trying to remember what Ashley’s talking about”.
The current defendant also helped Winter cut Pairama’s hair as she was tied to the chair, the witness told police in her initial interviews. She added today, however, that the defendant looked “shocked” and “scared” as she did so.
Lawyers will have an opportunity to continue questioning the witness when the trial, before Justice Kiri Tahana, resumes on Monday.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
