KEY POINTS:
Slain Hawke's Bay farmer Jack Nicholas had run-ins with strangers on his property on two separate occasions in the fortnight before his killing, a court hearing was told today.
Mr Nicholas' son Oliver told prosecutor Steve Manning "a couple of guys" had broken into a hut - known as Pink's Hut - at the back of his Makahu Valley farm, in rural Hawke's Bay.
"They claimed the hut had already been broken into when they turned up there," Oliver Nicholas said.
The hut is on private property that is part of the farm.
The Napier District Court heard that Mr Nicholas and Oliver had also chased off a couple of "spotlighters" about 10 days before Mr Nicholas was gunned down outside his gate on the morning of August 27, 2004.
Spotlighting is the hunting of rabbit, deer or possums using a battery-powered light.
Murray Kenneth Foreman, 50, of Haumoana, near Napier, is accused of the murder, and a second charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice by asking his partner to make a false statement to police.
The depositions hearing is due to last two weeks and he is defending the charges.
Oliver Nicholas said his father "could not tolerate poachers".
He said: "He generally told them to get the hell out of it, and depending on their attitude, serve them with a trespass notice."
The Nicholas farm lies in front of Conservation Department land, and hot springs, which are accessible to the public via a paper road running through the property, the court heard.
The family had had many problems over the years with strangers going onto the farm, and had experienced poaching, stock theft and cattle shooting, for no reason, Oliver Nicholas said.
He told the court he had seen evidence that a vehicle had forded a river onto the property the night before the killing.
Vehicle tracks - which he referred to as the wash - could be seen on the river bank onto the property.
He estimated the tracks had been left between 10pm and midnight the previous evening.
There was no evidence of the vehicle having re-crossed the river.
Oliver Nicholas told the court that he had gone off to move stock just minutes after finding his fathers body.
When asked why, he said: "The stock are important to us, and also it gave me time to try to think, and focus on what had happened."
