Father tells court of murdered daughter

Allison McPhee. Photo / Supplied

A year after her brutal murder - give or take a few days - the sad life of Allison McPhee has been outlined by her father to a silent courtroom.

Ms McPhee, 42, a daughter, a sister, and mother of two sons, was bashed to death in her Wellington City Council-owned bedsit in the suburb of Newtown.

She was last seen on July 22, 2010, and her bloodied, battered body found inside her front door when a friend barged his way in six days later. A hoodie covered the extensive head injuries allegedly caused by a broken chair.

Steeling himself as he took the witness stand in the High Court at Wellington late today, Ian McPhee mostly managed to keep his voice steady as he read a lengthy statement he had given last year to police.

Allison was the elder of two daughters born in Dundee to Mr McPhee and his wife, he said in a broad Scottish accent.

In 1970, the family moved to New Zealand "for a better way of life". Allison was four years old and her parents had begun to notice "something not quite right".

She was hyperactive and "survived on catnaps - a couple of hours or less".

Over the following years, the concerned parents took their firstborn to numerous doctors and specialists. Eventually one told them "she would always be that way".

Although Mr McPhee could not recall what sort of "syndrome" Allison had been labelled with, he remembered the prognosis: She would not improve and would probably get worse.

By the time she was at Hutt Valley High School, Allison was struggling with concentration. She was moved to a special school where her needs would be better met, he said.

"It was hard to tell if she was happy or sad. She didn't show her emotions," Mr McPhee said.

At 16, Allison was determined to leave home and go flatting. Her reluctant parents eventually supported her move.

The first flat was in Wellington but - in what was to become a pattern throughout her adult life - she soon wanted to move to Christchurch.

About 1991 she returned to Wellington and soon after had her first child, whose father was not involved in his upbringing.

"Allison found it very hard to look after her son. I think it was down to her medical condition," Mr McPhee told the court.

When she could not cope, her parents or sister would take the little boy to give her a break.

At four-years-old, Mr and Mrs McPhee took over full-time care of their grandson.

In 1998, Allison McPhee had a second son who, at the age of about two, went to live with her sister. But, with young children of her own, the financial burden was too great and the nephew went to a foster family. The grandparents and aunt kept in touch on Allison's behalf.

"We eventually stopped contact as we didn't want to upset him," said Mr McPhee.

Over the next 15 years, Allison moved to various flats around Wellington and Lower Hutt. She rarely stayed in a place for longer than a year and never told her family she had moved until it had happened.

About 2006 she shifted to Hawke's Bay and then settled in Gisborne for a few years. She would come south a couple of times a year to see her parents and sister, telephoning them between visits and sending the occasional email.

"Her tone never changed. She would never elaborate (on what was happening in her life)," Mr McPhee told the court.

The parents put money into her account when she needed it.

Not long before her death, Allison McPhee said she wanted to return to Wellington because her Mum and Dad were getting older and she wished to look after them.

"We found a flat, got furniture for it. For the first couple of weeks she seemed to be happy," her father remembered.

But within a short time, Allison moved again. Her parents never saw that flat, or the one that followed.

Mr McPhee: "I was not aware she had moved to a flat in Newtown."

To help their daughter out financially and keep in touch, he and his wife paid Allison a little bit of extra money - $25 a week - to come and do light housework and stay for lunch.

On July 22 last year - the date police believe she was murdered - Allison McPhee sent a text telling her parents she could not come that day because she had a friend arriving.

"I texted back `okay'," said Mr McPhee. That was the last Allison's family heard from her.

On trial for her murder is sometime partner and friend John Hone Haerewa, 53, who she described to others as "having my heart".

Evidence has been given in court this week that Ms McPhee had kicked him out of her home on July 22, 2010, because he drank and smoked too much, used solvents and sometimes had a mate over without telling her first.

- NZPA