Murder accused 'didn't have suicide on mind'

Tony Worrell. Photo / Greg Bowker

Murder accused Tony Worrell "didn't have suicide on his mind" and didn't mean car crash victim Katie Powles to die, a High Court jury heard yesterday.

Defence lawyer Matthew Goodwin said his client was intoxicated when he was driving along Linwood Rd, Karaka, towards Glasson's Bridge in June last year.

He said "homicide was conceded in this case" but Worrell was defending a charge of murder at a trial in the High Court at Auckland.

Mrs Powles, 26, died in hospital hours after Worrell crashed his Nissan into her red Mazda 323. He also hit Karaka man Brett Robinson seconds before the fatal impact.

The Crown says Worrell was no stranger to suicide attempts and it looks as though he was trying to take his own life, but Mr Goodwin said the defence case was that he didn't have suicide on his mind.

"Although his driving caused danger to other road users, causing serious consequences for Mr Robinson and devastating consequences for Mrs Powles ... Mr Worrell never meant to hurt either of those people."

He said it was up to the Crown to prove Worrell had murderous intent when the crash occurred, and was therefore guilty of murder.

A psychiatric nurse at Waitakere Hospital, Maurice Wogan, said he treated Worrell in the days leading up to the car crashes.

Worrell said the dangerous combination of alcohol and sedatives he had taken were because of "domestic circumstances" but he didn't want to die and spoke of wanting to travel overseas, Mr Wogan said.

Worrell's GP had prescribed him 10mg of diazepam. He took 90mg of it in the first three days which led to his admission to the psychiatric ward. He was released on the day of the crash.

Earlier, a crash analyst said Worrell was driving at between 70km/h and 85km/h when he hit Mrs Powles. Constable Chris Peet said there wasn't enough time or distance for her to avoid Worrell.

He said driving on the wrong side of the road was the main cause of the crash, but he was unable to say why Worrell did so. He believed Worrell was wearing his seatbelt.