Lawyer: Burton didn't intend to kill inmate

A lawyer for Graeme Burton says he did not intend to kill a fellow prison inmate when he attacked him with a weapon late last year.

Burton, 38, is on trial in the High Court at Auckland charged with attempting to murder Dwayne Marsh at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on December 20 last year.

Marsh was stabbed several times, including three times in the chest. He subsequently required emergency surgery at Auckland Hospital.

Security camera footage of the confrontation was played to the jury yesterday, and Burton's lawyer Peter Tomlinson said his client admitted attacking Marsh.

However, Mr Tomlinson said this did not mean Burton intended to kill Marsh.

He said Burton may have intended to injure Marsh, and may have intended to cause him serious harm, but that he did not intend to kill him.

Mr Tomlinson said the video footage showed Burton stopped his physical attack on Marsh before the latter was pulled away by guards.

Crown lawyer Deb Bell took a different view of the end of the confrontation, saying that the attack only ended when guards pulled Marsh away from the landing where the attack occurred.

She said it was not a spur of the moment attack and that the blows to the chest suggested an intention to kill.

The jurors will retire to consider their verdict after Justice Tony Randerson has summed the case up today.

- NZPA