Grandparents weep over slain children

The grandparents of two children killed by their father sobbed as they gave evidence in their son's trial yesterday.

The elderly Korean couple told the High Court at Auckland of finding the stabbed and bludgeoned bodies of their grandchildren and their daughter-in-law.

Former BNZ mortgage manager Robert Han does not deny using a knife and a hammer to murder his wife Angela and their two children, Christina, aged 2, and Nicholas, 4, at their Manukau home last August.

He also tried to kill himself, cutting his wrists and stabbing his stomach.

But defence counsel Robert Fardell and Chris Morris say 36-year-old Han was insane at the time.

His trial began yesterday before Justice Tony Randerson and a jury of nine women and three men. An interpreter is being used for witnesses with limited English.

Because the defence of insanity is not commonly used in New Zealand, the judge spoke at length to the jury about the process.

Justice Randerson said that normally in a murder trial the accused was considered innocent unless the Crown could prove he or she had committed the crime.

But when a plea of insanity was entered, the onus was on the defence counsel to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was insane.

Yesterday the jury heard that Han was a pathological gambler and was suffering from depression. He had racked up more than $100,000 in debts from gambling at Sky City Casino in Auckland.

Some of the money he had lost had been stolen from his sister.

Despite knowing about his problems and his debts, the family did not make Han see a doctor.

Han was born in Korea but was educated in Brunei and the United States. He later returned to Korea to work as a stockbroker, where he met Angela.

The couple moved to New Zealand in 1993 along with Han's parents Oh Suk Han and Sang Bon Han, and his sister Dong Mee Park and her family.

Han's children were born in New Zealand. The family shared a house with Han's parents.

Yesterday Mr and Mrs Han told how their son had mysteriously disappeared in March last year. Mr Han was so concerned that he filed a missing person's report with police.

The family later found out their son had fled to Korea. They then agreed he should stay there for up to five years to work off the debts he had incurred in New Zealand.

Mr Han told the jury of his surprise to find his son had returned unexpectedly in August last year.

He described how happy the family were to see their husband, father and son, but how the joyful reunion was shattered by his discovery of the bodies of Angela, Christina, Nicholas and Robert lying in pools of blood in a bedroom early on the following Monday morning.

Mr Han broke down when he spoke about his grandson's birthday, which would have been just two weeks after his death.

At the same time the accused sobbed loudly in the dock.

Mrs Han was also in tears while she gave evidence. She told the jury she had not thought her son needed professional help for his depression, but that if he worked in Korea for a while "he might get better."

"If I had known this was going to happen we should have lived together," she said.

The trial is due to end on Friday.