The atmosphere at the party changed suddenly when a group of skinheads seriously attacked a man before partygoers were run down by a car driven by Lipine Sila, the High Court at Christchurch was told yesterday.
On the eighth day of Sila's murder trial, the court heard testimony
from young people who were struck by the speeding car as it slammed through the crowd.
The 23-year-old factory hand denies charges of murdering two 16-year-old schoolgirls and intentionally wounding or causing grievous bodily harm to eight other people who were run down in the roadway outside the party in Edgeware Rd.
He does not deny he was driving the car. The Crown says it was an act of anger, but the defence says Sila was in a blind panic after a series of fights.
The trial before Justice John Fogarty and a jury has been told of several at the out-of-control party on the night of May 5 last year.
A girl who was 16 at the time of the party said she saw a 1.8m tall man get into a car and heard it revving loudly.
It was not moving and she thought he was revving it as a signal for people to get out of the way.
Seconds later, she was hit by the car. She fell onto its bonnet and then rolled off the windscreen and onto the road.
She got up and stood in a driveway.
She said she saw a group of skinheads seriously assaulting a man at the party earlier. They were wearing jeans or dark pants, and T-shirts reading West Coast or East Coast Choppers.
She confirmed the suggestion of Sila's lawyer, Pip Hall that the party atmosphere then changed significantly as the men became aggressive and were swearing.
The girl said she and her friends then decided to leave the party.
There was "chaos and disorder" on the road with hundreds of people on the roadway and footpath.
A fight was going on out there but she could not see the detail of it because of the crowd.
But she said she was not frightened for her safety, because she was not near the fight.
She was then hit by the car.
- NZPA
