A l5-year-old girl charged with murdering retired Opotiki teacher John Rowe was like a passenger getting into a stolen car which then crashes, her lawyer, Gene Tomlinson, told a jury in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday.
The girl, who has name suppression, and Courtney Churchward, 18, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Rowe after they broke into his home on November 25 last year. Churchward was the driver and his client the passenger, and had no idea Mr Rowe was going to be killed, Mr Tomlinson said.
There was no evidence of the girl, who was then 14, inflicting injuries or any murderous intent on her part, he said.
The girl could have been guilty of burglary or theft "but these charges are not for this day", he said. In intercepted phone calls with her boyfriend, the girl said it was Churchward's idea to ransack Mr Rowe's house.
- NZPA
