Murder accused and victim had 'fantasised relationship'

Dean Mulligan. Photo / Wanganui Chronicle

The jury in the trial of murder accused Dean Mulligan yesterday heard how he and Marice McGregor had a "fantasised relationship", which Mulligan had broken off the day before she was last seen or heard from.

In his first recorded interview with police at the Feilding police station, on April 30 last year, Mulligan said his relationship with Ms McGregor started to develop about two years ago, when they met again after first encountering each other in a Wanganui bar about 16 years ago.

Their relationship developed over their mutual experiences with abuse - she told him she had been sexually abused when she was very young, and they talked a lot about it, he said.

Their relationship grew without him realising, he said. About a year before she disappeared it got more serious and became sexual - although he maintained they never had full intercourse.

Mulligan is on trial at the High Court at Wanganui for the murder of Ms McGregor in April last year. He is accused of hitting her on the head with an iron bar, and leaving her at the bottom of a gully. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the police interview heard yesterday, Mulligan said he last saw her on Sunday, April 18 when he confronted her about a phone call she had made to his pastor, John Sefton, who also gave evidence yesterday. Mulligan said Ms McGregor had called Mr Sefton asking him to speak to him because she was concerned that he was in deep financial difficulties and may commit suicide.

She told Mr Sefton she was Mulligan's girlfriend and they were going to get married.

Mulligan said it was a "shock to him" to hear from his pastor about marrying Ms McGregor, so he decided to end their relationship for good.

He went to her home on April 18, the day before she was last seen, to break it off.

He said he spoke to her three times on the phone the next day to reiterate that he wanted to call it off and the last he heard from her was two texts saying "sorry I'm late" and "I'm at Lismore" on April 19.

He said he didn't know what the texts were about and assumed they were meant for someone else.

Brian Signal, a stranger to Mulligan, told the court that he met him on a river bank near the Feilding Motorcamp on May 25 last year, when Mulligan approached him to talk about his car.

Mr Signal said Mulligan told him he and his girlfriend had separated. Mr Signal clarified what he said by asking if she had left him, or gone missing "like that lady in Wanganui", to which Mulligan said "Yeah that's her".

Mulligan told him he had hit her in a rage then panicked and left her.

Mr Signal said Mulligan showed him a written confession and said he was turning himself in.

Later that afternoon, Mulligan was picked up and driven to the Palmerston North police station by Mr Sefton, who told the court that on the drive over, Mulligan also confessed to him.

About 10 minutes into the car ride, Mulligan said to him "I think I done it", and went on to repeat the story he told Mr Signal.

- APN