Lloyd admits burying Katherine Sheffield

A man who served eight years after being wrongly convicted of the manslaughter of Northland woman Katherine Sheffield has today admitted a charge related to burying the 23-year-old.

In the High Court at Auckland, Lawrence Lloyd pleaded guilty before Justice Mark Cooper to improperly offering an indignity to the dead body of Ms Sheffield.

He was remanded at large for sentencing next month.

Lloyd's lawyer, Ken Bailey, told Justice Cooper that the Crown was seeking a term of imprisonment to mark the seriousness of the charge.

But Mr Bailey added that Lloyd had "a credit in the bank of about eight years" for a crime he did not commit.

Lloyd was found guilty by a jury in of the manslaughter of Ms Sheffield at his Mangonui home in September 1994.

Last August the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction and ordered a new trial.

Mr Bailey said that the Crown was not now pursuing any other charge against his client.

Following a new police investigation, Lloyd's nephew Noel Clement Rogers, 31, is now charged with murdering Ms Sheffield in September 1994. He is also charged with raping her eight months earlier.

Rogers today denied the charges through his lawyer, Public Defender, Michael Corry.

Justice Cooper scheduled his trial for November, with pre-trial hearings over three days in July.