RSA murder trial begins

3.00pm - By PATRICK GOWER

It was a miracle of modern medicine that Susan Couch was alive today, Crown Solicitor Simon Moore told the High Court in Auckland today.

Moore was making his opening remarks in the trial of two men accused of last year's Mt Wellington RSA triple murder.

William Duane Bell and Darnell Kere Tupe are charged with murdering three people at Auckland's Mt Wellington RSA on December 8 last year, attempting to murder Ms Couch, and the aggravated robbery of the RSA. They are charged with murdering William Absolum, Wayne Johnson and Mary Hobson. Bell is also charged with the theft of nearly $5000 from the St George's Tavern in Papatoetoe a week earlier.

Eight men and four women jurors were sworn in at the High Court in Auckland today to hear the case against two men accused of last year's Mt Wellington RSA triple murder.

The opening address by Crown Solicitor Simon Moore was expected to take the rest of today and some of tomorrow morning before he calls the first of about 160 witnesses.

The witness list includes Ms Couch. Mr Moore described how Ms Couch spent several weeks in intensive care after the attack. "She was beaten senseless and left to die. Put bluntly, it is a nothing less than a miracle of modern medicine that she is alive today."

Mr Moore described the scene inside the RSA on the mrning of the murders as "carnage" and said the jurors would find the photographs appalling. The trial is scheduled for six weeks in the historic number 1 court at the Auckland High Court.

An earlier move by Bell and Tupe to have the trial moved out of Auckland failed.