KEY POINTS:
The son of slain Tokoroa schoolteacher Lois Dear is "a little bit disappointed" at further delays in the court process.
Had Whetu Te Hiko, the man charged with the 66-year-old's murder, entered a guilty plea today that "certainly would have been a good Christmas present for us," Kevin McNeil said outside the High Court at Rotorua.
But it was not to be. Te Hiko was expected to formally plead to the charge when he appeared for arraignment this morning. Instead, he was remanded for psychiatric assessment to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
That was not something Mr McNeil and the rest of Lois Dear's family had anticipated.
Her son admitted he had not thought of the possibility that the accused would not be tried over the killing.
"The system is new to us and we just have to take what happens," he said. "We have got to have faith that justice will be done -- and certainly it will be."
The brutally beaten body of the dedicated schoolteacher, mother and grandmother was found on her classroom floor at Strathmore Primary School in Tokoroa about midday on Sunday July 16.
She had been at work preparing for the start of the new term next day.
The family had been dealing with their shocking loss for five months now "and it's going to drag on," said Mr McNeil, who has been determined to travel from his Coromandel home to attend each of Te Hiko's court appearances "for Mum."
He said they believed in the justice system and had been coping "pretty good. We're cruising along, sticking together."
Although he would have Christmas Day off, Mr McNeil said he would be back to work on Boxing Day and over the rest of the holiday season.
There had been "no contact at all" from relatives of the accused since the last call-over at Rotorua in early October. Then, in a surprise move, an older brother of Te Hiko approached an emotional Kevin O'Neil outside the court and expressed condolences.
Eyes brimming with tears, Piri Te Hiko said: "I'm really sorry. She sounded like a real good lady. She taught a lot of my nieces and nephews."
In court today, Justice Paul Heath said he was not prepared yet to accept a plea or indict 23-year-old Whetu Te Hiko on the murder charge after receiving an application for an assessment under the Mentally Impaired Persons Act.
An Auckland consultant psychiatrist, Dr Rees Tapsell, reported that he was having difficulty making an assessment in the prison remand facility of whether Te Hiko was fit to stand trial and wanted to see him in a hospital environment.
Andrew Schultz, the lawyer representing the accused on instruction today, said the assessment would not be concerned with Te Hiko's sanity in July.
Justice Heath said he had no hesitation in accepting the recommendation of Dr Tapsell, who was an experienced and respected psychiatrist.
He ordered the accused be detained at the Henry Bennett Centre -- the Waikato region's secure mental health unit -- for a two-week psychiatric examination from January 15.
Te Hiko would appear in court again on February 23, when the psychiatrist's report would be heard and a plea entered.
On the same day, Justice Heath said he would hear legal arguments from media organisations which had applied to publish the written depositions in the case -- something the defence had opposed.
- NZPA
