Detective in tears over shot officer's call for help

Iain Clegg (left) and John Skinner (right) in the High Court yesterday, charged with murdering Don Wilkinson. Photo / NZPA

The detective in charge of an undercover police operation where an officer was shot dead broke down in tears before a jury today as he recalled his colleague radioing for help.

Prosecutors say Sergeant Don Wilkinson and another officer, whose name is suppressed, were shot in south Auckland on September 11 2008, by John Skinner, 38, as he and Iain Clegg, 36, chased them after they tried to plant a tracking device on a car at Skinner's Mangere house.

Skinner and Clegg are on trial in the High Court at Auckland for the murder of Mr Wilkinson and the attempted murder of his colleague. Skinner also faces a charge of assault with a firearm.

Detective Sergeant Gregory Holmes told the jury he was part of the undercover police operation that night.

He heard a distressed voice calling for help over the radio, and he stopped his vehicle in the middle of the road.

"It wasn't until I got closer that I realised something had gone wrong. Sergeant Wilkinson and another officer were on the ground. Both their heads were against a fence," Mr Holmes said.

"There was blood on the driveway, and I think there was a bag on the ground between them."

He told the police communications centre to send the armed offenders squad.

Mr Holmes told the court he was in charge of the clan lab investigation team.

He had been involved with placing a tracking device on Skinner's Ford Explorer vehicle, because he was suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine.

Under cross examination from Skinner's lawyer, Marie Dyhrberg, he was asked if it was his decision who was armed on his team.

He agreed that was the case.

She then asked if they were reliant on radio contact that night, and if there was an element of risk involved, to which he agreed.

Clegg's lawyer, Graeme Newell, asked Mr Holmes if he had to resort to using a tracking device as other methods had been unsuccessful.

He said the use of a tracking device would provide the evidence they were looking for.

Crown prosecutor Simon Moore SC said Skinner and Clegg were guilty of murdering Mr Wilkinson and attempting to murder his colleague, as they intended to either kill them or cause them serious harm they knew could be fatal.

Ms Dyhrberg said her client thought the policemen were intruders and reacted to that.

"It's not a case about somebody knowingly harming police officers," she said.

"It's a case about somebody forming the belief that somebody was breaking onto his property. Two men ran from that property when challenged, he pursued them, located them, there was a verbal altercation and it caused the altercation that followed."

Self-defence would also be raised as an issue, Ms Dyhrberg said.

Clegg's co-counsel, Stuart Grieve QC, said his client did not kill Mr Wilkinson and did not attempt to kill his colleague.

Mr Grieve said Clegg acted on his own when he pursued the two men he thought were burglars, and did not know anything about what Skinner was going to do.

He said Clegg's only action was to hit Mr Wilkinson's colleague with his fist before Skinner came from behind him and to one side and fired the shots from a high powered airgun.

The jury were today taken to the scene, before the trial resumed in court this afternoon.

The trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning and a jury of four women and eight men is due to last three weeks.

- NZPA