KEY POINTS:
A man was kicked off the jury in the murder trial of a triad enforcer today after it is understood he used his mobile phone to photograph police evidence in court.
The juror arrived at the High Court in Auckland this morning and was swiftly sent home after Judge Patricia Courtney made her ruling that he was no longer to be involved in the trail.
The accused, Wan Yee Chow, 54, is charged with murdering triad enforcer Tam Yam Ah, 37, outside Mr Tam's karaoke bar in Symonds Street Auckland in the early hours of July last year.
Judge Courtney called the remaining jurors back into court and told them they would continue the two-week trial with 11 jurors only.
"The juror has been discharged for reasons you don't need to worry about," she told the jury.
"But it won't affect the trial and you can carry on as normal."
The jury were sent home early yesterday after court staff had been informed a juror had possibly taken photographs of police evidence on his mobile phone.
It is understood the photos were of relatively harmless material, including documents in the police book of evidence given to the jury.
The discharged juror was kept back yesterday to speak with the judge and he then handed over his mobile phone to detectives involved in the case who examined its contents overnight.
Police nor counsel would give a formal statement about the situation.
In the witness box this morning was a Chinese man, whose name was suppressed, whom the defence suggested had a motive for killing Mr Tam.
The victim's girlfriend at the time of the killing had lived with the witness, but left him for the victim six months before the killing.
Under defence cross examination, the witness admitted to beating his ex-girlfriend once and also feeling angry about her leaving him for another man.
The witness denied threatening to knife the new lovers to death, and also denied shooting Mr Tam.
He said on the night of the killing he spent all night at the Paramount karaoke bar near Sky City.
- NZPA
