Paddy Woods' murder charge dismissed after death of Zena Campbell.
The man discharged of murder after the death of Zena Campbell wants compensation after spending a year accused of strangling her.
Paddy Jonathan Woods was due to stand trial in the High Court at Wellington yesterday morning, but Justice David Collins instead dismissed the murder charge, saying a jury could not safely find him guilty.
Woods was accused of murdering 21-year-old Campbell after attending a party with her in February last year.
He and Campbell went to sleep in his car in the early hours of February 11, 2018, and he awoke later that day to find her draped across him, dead.
In a judgment released yesterday, Justice Collins said Woods had told police he put Campbell in a choke hold as part of their consensual sexual activity a couple of nights before the death.
Zena Campbell went onto the methadone programme, and was dead within two weeks. Photo / Supplied
She had been enthusiastic about the practice and encouraged him to do so, but he only had a "brief go".
Woods' murder charge was thrown out after new evidence revealed the death may have been caused by a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol, rather than strangulation.
Post-mortem findings showed Campbell had methadone, oxazepam, Ritalin, alcohol and cannabis in her blood.
Campbell, who was on the methadone programme, had been warned just a couple of weeks prior that the use of methadone with other substances created a higher risk of overdose.
Woods' brother, who only wanted to be referred to as Tony, said Woods would now be looking into whether he could seek compensation from police for spending a year accused of murder.
Woods briefly lost his job and his liberty, and was unable to earn a living for himself while he awaited trial.
"It's been a relief that it's been thrown out," said Tony.
"It's been a year in the marking, it's had a major impact on my family's stress levels."
Woods has suffered bouts of depression and had to be put onto new medication to cope, he said.
"Paddy is not a violent person. I've known him all my life . . . he keeps to himself, he's a very generous person, he's not that violent type, he's not capable of killing anyone."
The family were looking forward to putting the tragedy behind them and "start on new beginnings".
Tony said they were kept in the dark until about September, when they started receiving reports on what had occurred.
Woods' lawyers applied for the case to be thrown out last year, but Justice Collins declined the application.
Paddy Woods had his murder charge dropped yesterday in the High Court at Wellington. Photo / Facebook
It wasn't until a toxicology report came out that the application was granted.
"He's relieved that it's all over, that he can have a few beers and relax and not worry anymore," Tony said.
"He wishes that everyone knew right from the start about what he thought."
Now Woods will be contacting his former employer to see if he can get his job back, and will be meeting with his lawyer over the question of compensation.
"He needs something to rectify his whole life, basically."
Detective Sergeant Ben Quinn said the new evidence that led to the murder charge being dropped arrived just weeks before the trial.
"It took a while for our experts to discuss the case. We were dealing with an expert from overseas and putting their opinions together took some time, which unfortunately led up to the trial date," he said.
"I think we can reassure the public in saying that we got as much information as we can in relation to the case."
Zena's father, Chris Campbell, said outside court yesterday they could only hope she "passed quietly".
"Even if [Woods] had been convicted or anything like that, it wouldn't have brought her back," he said.
"There's a lot of contributing factors that made the perfect storm."
Uncle Craig Campbell said no one person was responsible for Zena's death, and that it was "a collection of things that had gone wrong".
After the death last year, Zena's aunt, Carol Campbell, said Zena had been turning her life around.
She had struggled with addiction, but had begun a methadone programme two weeks before her death.
Campbell, who Zena lived with for more than five years as a child, said she had only ever known her as a boy, one she described as a "lovable ratbag" with a troubled past.
"He overcame a lot. His life was a struggle. It was a struggle, especially, with ADHD. But he muddled through.
"He had a struggle with drugs, with injecting. He had just decided 'that's it, I'm going to get clean', and he got on the methadone programme and two weeks later he was dead.
"He was starting to become happy, starting to get his life together."
