Jury to digest evidence in murder trial

The Crown allege Neil Swain shot Mr Hansen five times during an argument in November 2013. Photo / Supplied

The jury will today begin their deliberation in the Whetu Hansen murder trial.

The case was "characterised by its simplicity", Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk told the jury during his closing address yesterday, the start of the fourth week of the trial in the High Court at Palmerston North.

The Crown allege Neil Swain shot Mr Hansen five times during an argument in November 2013, storing his body for 10 days, then sealing it in a 44-gallon drum and dumping it in the Whanganui River.

It was a circumstantial case, Mr Vanderkolk said, but there was enough evidence for a conviction.

He said Swain had told various versions of events to many different people and that was consistent with the actions of a murderer under pressure, he said. "It's an outright devious fabrication. It's lie upon lie ..."

But the account of a witness, who said Swain confessed the murder to him, could be taken as accurate because the witness was one of the few Swain trusted and to whom he would have told the truth.

Mr Vanderkolk said Swain had tried to manufacture doubt in a "misguided attempt to lay false trails".

This included sending texts to Mr Hansen's phone as though he thought he was still alive.

"Why do you send a text to a man that you know to be dead?" he asked the jury.

"It's proof of a guilty, murderous mind at work.

"You don't have to create doubt if you are innocent - if you are innocent, the doubt will be obvious."

Swain's attempt to clean the scene and dispose of Hansen's body were not the actions of an innocent man, Mr Vanderkolk said.

"Any step taken to disturb the scene is inconsistent with innocence," he said. "If you're innocent you don't have to get rid of the ute."

Defence lawyer Steve Winter said the only thing the Crown had proved was that Swain was an accessory after the fact.

It was wrong to assume only Mr Hansen's killer would want to clean up the scene and dispose of evidence, he said.

The jury have been told of Swain's criminal history which included bombing a police station.

"This is a man who cannot and would not call the authorities when such an event happened at his property," Mr Winter said.

"There are many indicators that he was really not much more than a possum caught in headlights."

He said the witness who allegedly heard Swain's confession had changed his story several times.

"Members of the jury what we are being told by [the witness] about this confession is a lie."

Mr Winter said there was evidence Mr Hansen had got offside with other people in the circles he moved in.

"Things were clearly banking up on Whetu Hansen during the course of 2013. Things were closing in on him and he was looking over his shoulder."

But Mr Winter said Swain would "rather be convicted of murder himself than name those who were responsible for Whetu Hansen's death".

"Neil Swain, at least some of the time, moves in circles where nark is a very dangerous label.

"All he says to you is hold me accountable for what I've actually did, not find me guilty of that which I did not."

Justice Brendan Brown will sum up the case for the jury this morning.