Guilty verdicts in home invasion trial

Yvonne Wiffen said the men rushed at her and pushed her down so she could not see them. Photo / File

Two men charged with stealing thousands of dollars off a Hutt Valley couple in a 'horrifying' home invasion last year have been found guilty by a jury today.

Jeremy Gorinski, 34, and Dinesh Manoharan, 36, were found guilty of stealing between $50,000 and $80,000 in notes and coins from a Silverstream property on June 19 last year.

The jury had been in deliberation since yesterday afternoon and returned to the Wellington
District Court just after 2pm.

The pair were remanded in custody for sentencing in November.

Yvonne Wiffen pleaded for her life when she was forced to open a safe during the robbery in which she and husband Malcolm, both in their 60s, were bound and threatened with sawn-off shotguns.

Earlier in the trial, Crown prosecutor Sally Carter described the incident as "horrifying''.

Gorinski and Manoharan each denied the charge of aggravated robbery.

Yesterday Ms Carter told the jury at there was no dispute the robbery occurred but they had to decide whether the accused were responsible.

"When [evidence is] looked at together it is what compels you to think it was these two,'' she said.

Manoharan's lawyer Christopher Stevenson said the Crown case came down to assumptions and guilt by association.

The fact Manoharan was with Gorinski a couple of days after the robbery did not connect him to the crime, he said.

Gorinski's lawyer Keith Jefferies said of paramount importance was the lack of evidence in the case.

There was no DNA at the scene, nor was there any of his client's DNA on a gun found by police.

When the men were arrested, police found various items stolen from the Wiffens' house, including a gold and rose trinket box.

Shoeprints left at the scene matched Gorinski's shoes, and DNA found at the scene was 20 times more likely to have come from Manoharan than someone else, expert witnesses told the jury.