KEY POINTS:
As drug-crazed Nathan Fenton viciously beat his girlfriend with the end of a shotgun he told her terrified flatmates and their children: "You are going to watch her blood splatter".
An hour and a half later, while Mairina Dunn lay dead or dying on her bed, Fenton - who was high on P - sat the flatmates down, pointed the bloody gun at each of them and chanted: "You know nothing, you saw nothing, you say nothing."
The 31-year-old yesterday pleaded guilty to the 17-year-old's murder, assault with intent to injure her male flatmate and pointing a firearm at three female flatmates.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing items from a campervan and unlawfully taking the blue BMW which he used while on the run from police for 10 days.
Fenton and Ms Dunn had been dating for only a short time when she was murdered. During that brief period, police say, Fenton influenced and dominated the teenager in any way he could.
A week before her death he punched her in the head several times because she "wouldn't listen to him".
On August 26 last year Fenton went to a Black Power party while Ms Dunn stayed at their Whangarei home with flatmates, watching a movie on television before going to bed.
About 3am Fenton returned home. He was drunk and high on P. He stormed into the house, dragged a male flatmate out of bed and accused him of sleeping with Ms Dunn.
When the flatmate denied the allegation Fenton punched him several times in the head.
The flatmate fled from the house, running over broken glass in his attempt to escape. Fenton then went into Ms Dunn's room and dragged her out of bed and on to a balcony, where he put the same allegation to her.
Her denial triggered the start of a vicious beating which lasted more than 1 1/2 hours and moved throughout most rooms of the house.
It started on the balcony. Numerous blows from the barrel of a sawnoff shotgun rained down on the teenager's head, shoulders, legs and arms, leaving indentations, bruising and deep cuts on her body.
Not satisfied, Fenton dragged her into the house by her hair, causing a clump of it to fall out.
Inside, he continued the beating, in front of three terrified female flatmates and their young children - aged 10 months to 3 years - who had woken up.
As the blows continued he told them, "You are going to watch her blood splatter", and warned them what would happen if they tried to escape.
At one stage Fenton had to stop to catch his breath before regaining enough energy to continue the attack.
A police summary of facts says Ms Dunn tried to crawl away, pleaded for her life and eventually curled herself into the fetal position to try to protect herself.
But still the beating continued.
Ms Dunn was also punched, kneed and kicked - the impression of a bootprint was later found on her head - before being dragged into her bedroom.
Police say Fenton tried to clean up the blood splattered on walls throughout the house.
He also changed Ms Dunn's clothes and placed a ring on her finger and a bone carving on her body, which had suffered extensive injuries, including a broken rib and punctured lung. She is believed to have died from head injuries or the damaged lung.
The following morning two of the young flatmates escaped and went straight to the police.
By the time officers arrived Fenton was on the run with his ex-partner Eileen Everitt.
They were caught at Otamure Bay after a huge manhunt throughout Northland.
Fenton and Everitt - who pleaded guilty yesterday to being an accessory to murder after the fact - are to be sentenced later in the year.
A spokesman for Ms Dunn's family, Jake Dunn, said they were still struggling to come to terms with what had happened, but Fenton's plea had made things a little easier.
"I would like to see him get the biggest sentence there is available."
