KEY POINTS:
A man accused of killing police dog Enzo entered the dock in Tauranga District Court to a call of "sieg heil" from the public gallery this afternoon.
As he was being ushered in Tairyn Murphy glanced at a handful of supporters, including his partner and a young boy.
Acknowledging the Nazi greeting adopted by the Mongrel Mob as their gang slogan, he called: "They've f... beat me up."
A woman responded with two expletives.
There appeared to be several superficial wounds on Murphy's face during his brief appearance before Community Magistrate Robyn Paterson.
The 27-year-old labourer's lawyer Nicholas Dutch said he consented to his client being held in custody until Monday.
After Mrs Paterson remanded him accordingly, Murphy again called out to his supporters as three police officers quickly hustled him out of the courtroom.
"See you honey," his partner replied.
No pleas were entered to a charge under the Police Act of killing a police dog, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison or a $10,000 fine, and another of resisting police.
Murphy was wanted on a count of theft of $4000 worth of property from a car at Papamoa and for failing to turn up at a defended hearing on family violence matters last week.
According to the prosecution summary, police went to a rural address in the Kaimai Ranges, 20km south of Tauranga, at 10am yesterday to arrest Murphy but he allegedly climbed out a window and fled.
He was pursued for hours through thick bush and farmland. During the search, police dog handler Kayne Cording came across the body of his three-year-old german shepherd Enzo who had been working for the force for 18 months.
Police bosses are waiting for the results of a post mortem examination before they confirm whether the dog drowned.
A second police dog was used to help catch Murphy seven hours after he ran off.
Outside the courthouse today, a woman who would only give her name as Nelly said Murphy had been her partner for eight years and he was "a family man".
With dogs of his own, he "wouldn't go out of his way to kill a dog".
Claiming "he had not a mark on his face when he left my house," she said she would "do everything I can" to follow-up his accusation that police had "bashed him".
Handler shattered
Enzo's handler, Constable Kayne Cording, said earlier today that he was feeling shattered after the death of his "little mate," who he had reared since he was a six-month-old pup.
Enzo, 3, had only been working for 18 months, but Mr Cording said he had been involved in numerous apprehensions and was a loyal and brave dog.
Mr Cording said he and Enzo had yesterday tracked a man for about six kilometres through dense bush and open farmland, and were both beginning to get fatigued when they reached a point where Enzo indicated to his handler he had found a strong fresh track.
The officer then issued a challenge to the offender, telling him he was under arrest and the dog would be released if he did not give himself up.
When the man failed to emerge from the bush, Mr Cording sent Enzo into the bush to apprehend him.
Mr Cording said he initially could hear Enzo following the scent, but called him back when all had been silent for about a minute.
"When he didn't come back and I couldn't hear anything from him, I realised something was wrong."
A large-scale search involving officers from around the region spread out around the area, looking for both the offender, and Enzo.
It was a "hard" couple of hours before another dog handler tracked Enzo and found his dead body, about 800m from where he had been released.
"Basically he tracked the guy to his fate," Mr Cording said.
It was "gut-wrenching," he said.
"I was shattered."
As Mr Cording carried Enzo out of the bush in his arms, he briefly contemplated leaving the force, he said.
While Enzo was a strong and reliable dog, he was only small - at 32kg, he was smaller than most police dogs, which usually weighed in at more than 40kg.
"He's a determined little dog, but he has only one means of defence or attack, his mouth," Mr Cording said.
"If you can get hold of that, there's not much he can do."
Mr Cording said Enzo had been reliable and faithful.
"He'd hang on every word. He was a really neat little dog, I loved working with him. I looked forward to coming to work."
- NZPA
