Jamie Gill died on a Carterton property on June 25 last year.
Jamie Gill died on a Carterton property on June 25 last year.
Murder-accused Wire Reddington has tried to pin the blame on his brother, but the Crown says that’s unlikely given the ankle bracelet Tipene Reddington was wearing shows he didn’t venture close to where the victim was found on the Wairarapa property.
While the defence has tried to say Tipene Reddington killed Jamie Gill in June 2023, evidence was given today in the High Court at Wellington about his ankle bracelet and how Corrections was able to extract the data to reveal his exact movements on the night of the murder.
The Crown’s case is that Gill died as a result of a fight at the rural Carterton property where the Reddington brothers lived with their mother.
The 32-year-old was allegedly cut and beaten before being strangled and then dragged down the property’s driveway. He was then dumped in a paddock, face down in a ditch and left to suffocate. Several pieces of his ears were also missing.
Reddington denies murdering Gill and blames his older brother Tipene – who was wearing an electronic bracelet at the time as part of his parole conditions. Tipene says it wasn’t him and he is not on trial.
Wire Manuel Reddington in the High Court at Wellington where he denies a charge of murder. Photo / Catherine Hutton
Giving evidence by audio-visual link, the Department of Corrections technical expert told the court he’d monitored and examined Tipene’s bracelet data for the night of Gill’s death.
Paul Rea said it showed Tipene was located mainly at the southern end of the main house within a 25-30 metre radius of the house that night.
Asked by defence lawyer Ian Hard about one reading taken from the bracelet at 2am, Rea agreed it could put Tipene at any point within 68m of that reading – close to where Gill’s body was found at the entrance to the property.
Re-examined by Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop, Rea measured the distance between the house and the gate, showing it was about 80m.
Rea also cautioned against looking at a single data point taken from the bracelet because it didn’t provide any context about the performance of the device or give consideration to other factors that might have occurred.
Rea was also asked about a bridge some distance from the property.
Earlier the court heard that during a car trip after Gill’s death the car’s driver said she recalled Tipene saying as they approached that bridge: “This is where I killed Jamie, I told Wire we should have just chucked him off the bridge, but no, our stupid a*** brother had to drag him back to the paddock.
Tipene repeatedly denied saying those words, and having anything to do with the murder, while giving evidence this week.
Rea said the data showed Tipene was nowhere near the bridge on the night of Gill’s death.
The jury trial before Justice Jason McHerron resumes next week.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
