Shooting of undercover cop was 'self defence' - accused

Ian Lindsay Clegg, (L), and John Ward Skinner (R) are charged with murdering undercover policeman Don Wilkinson. Photo / NZPA

The man accused of shooting dead an undercover police officer says he did so out of self defence, the High Court has heard.

John Ward Skinner, 37, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sergeant Don Wilkinson on September 11, 2008.

Mr Wilkinson was shot and killed by Skinner with an air rifle on a driveway around the corner from Skinner's home where Mr Wilkinson and a colleague were trying to install a tracking device on a car.

Police allege Skinner is involved with the manufacture of P.

He and another man, Iain Lindsay Clegg, 33, are on trial at the High Court at Auckland. They are both charged with Mr Wilkinson's murder and attempted murder of his colleague, who has name suppression.

This morning Skinner began giving evidence as the defence case opened. The trial is into its third week.

In her opening address to the jury, Skinner's lawyer Marie Dyhrberg said if he could turn the clock back to the early hours of the morning the incident happened, to when Mr Wilkinson was alive and well, he would.

She said the jury would have to decide what happened that night at the end of a "pitch black" Mangere driveway.

She said Skinner believed Mr Wilkinson and his colleague were burglars or intruders.

"They dressed like them and acted like them and carried what appeared to be tool bags, their tools of the trade."

When Skinner challenged them they ran off.

Ms Dyhrberg said: "This was consistent with the conclusion that these were bad guys who were up to no good."

On the driveway one of the officers advanced and she said Skinner saw Mr Wilkinson reach for his waist area.

"At that precise moment he thought he was reaching for a gun."

Skinner reacted "instinctively" and was full of adrenalin when he fired because he believed in a few "split seconds" he and Mr Clegg would be shot.

Later, when he was being interviewed at the police station, Skinner said he was shocked someone had died and another had been seriously injured.

He did not think the air rifle could cause fatal wounds.