Karen Aim's killer fancied gold chains and bling earrings

Jahche Broughton assaulted a young woman days before he murdered Scottish tourist Karen Aim. Photo / Alan Gibson

Jahche Broughton fancied himself a bit of a ladies' man.

He had a penchant for gold chains and diamond earrings and his hair was always gelled and spiked high in front. He wore clean clothes, including ironed white shirts, to all his court appearances.

Because of his age, the now-15-year-old's name and any other details identifying him were suppressed after he was arrested for murdering Scottish backpacker Karen Aim on January 17 last year in Taupo.

But after a guilty plea in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, the Herald can now reveal Broughton also bashed - and left for dead - a 17-year-old girl a week before the murder.

He admitted a murder charge and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua on March 6.

Broughton was bought up by his religious grandparents Monty and Moana in the Taupo suburb of Nukuhau.

A search of the house found pornographic magazines and videos under a bed in his bedroom.

Files retrieved from the memory stick in Ms Aim's camera - which police found under the house - show he had taken four photos of himself, wearing sunglasses and a diamond-looking earring, holding the camera closer to himself each time.

A cousin Broughton had talked to about the crime told police Broughton had a page on the social networking site Bebo.

"I think he uses it to keep in touch with all his girlfriends. He's got millions, all on Bebo ... I've never actually seen him with a girl.

He has a mean temper on him and he's quite big." He usually wore a "big bling earring", the cousin said. "He goes for the gangster look all the time and he's always doing his hair."

He said Broughton smoked marijuana and drank alcohol.

Whenever Ms Aim's name came on television "Jahche would look over at me and go 'Oooh' when they came up with new evidence.

"I'd pull this expression on my face, 'They're going to catch you' and he would pull a face back," the cousin said.

Broughton had a tendency to make up stories. He told a friend a man called "Bryan", a Mongrel Mob prospect from Rotorua, had killed Ms Aim. Asked what else Broughton had said about what "Bryan" had supposedly done, the witness said: "He hit her over the head with a baseball bat.

"He was planning on throwing her into the Waikato River but there was too much traffic around so he left."

Broughton's demeanour during a three-day depositions hearing last year was silent and impassive.

He was seen to wince once when the Taupo Youth Court heard about a rip in Ms Aim's underwear.