Emma Field's body was found following a fire that ripped through her New Plymouth flat on May 27, 2022. Now, her partner Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer is on trial for her alleged murder.
WARNING: Some readers may find the details of this story distressing
A man fuelled by anger and alcohol murdered his partner by setting fire to the bed she was asleep on and then pretended to try and fight the blaze, hoping to appear as the “failed hero” who attempted to save his “soulmate” from incineration.
At least, that was what Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke alleged to the jury in her closing statement at the trial of the accused, Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer.
But Beer’s lawyer, Julian Hannam, maintained his client was not responsible for the fire and instead pointed the finger at a former Mongrel Mob member who had a history of arson and was staying next door to the couple’s flat.
He said the Crown’s case was speculation and that the police investigation had holes in it.
On Tuesday, in the fourth week of the trial, closing statements were heard in the High Court at New Plymouth before Justice Karen Grau, the jury, and a public gallery packed with friends and family of both Beer and his alleged victim, Emma Field.
As the lengthy conflicting statements were read, Beer, dressed in a black suit, dress shirt and white skate shoes, sat motionless in the dock with his hands in his lap and eyes fixed forward.
He is defending charges of murder, arson and injuring with intent to injure.
It is alleged Beer murdered Field, 21, on May 27, 2022, by overturning the bed on which she was sleeping, setting fire to it, and then walking away and leaving her to burn to death.
She was alive but likely unconscious when the blaze took hold of their Devon St West, New Plymouth, flat.
On the night of the fire, Beer and Field had friends over and they listened to music, drank alcohol and shared an ecstasy pill.
They planned to head into town together but that never eventuated. Instead, Field went to bed after being allegedly subjected to disrespectful comments about her appearance by Beer in front of their friends.
The Crown claims that as the night wore on Beer began talking about suicide and grew angry at his friends for not listening to him.
He then, “out of the blue”, punched a glass window, causing blood to splatter throughout his doorway and his friends to leave for town without him, it is alleged.
Clarke said in her closing that Beer’s anger intensified after he was ditched, so he returned to the flat and took it out on Field and their bed.
“Exactly how Miss Field ended up lying under that window, most likely unconscious, will never be known,” Clarke said.
“But we do know that someone strong and large in stature, you might think, and angry would be the only person able to overturn that bed and mattress with or without Miss Field on it.
“The only person with those characteristics and any reason ... to turn his anger, to damage that apartment and to hurt Miss Field, the Crown says, was the defendant Leigh Beer.”
The fire investigation determined a naked flame began the fire at the foot of the bed and the Crown says Beer did it using a combination of a cigarette lighter, found on him with his blood on it, and a butane gas lighter, which was allegedly hidden by him and also covered with his blood.
“That, members of the jury, is being caught red-handed,” Clarke said.
Beer then had time to call 111, to get a fire extinguisher, to pull the flat’s fire alarm, and to change his mind and save Field.
“But he did none of those things.”
She claimed he instead leaned against his car, which was found with his blood on it, and waited for the fire to take hold before smashing the bedroom windows to feed the fire with oxygen.
He then began a “charade” to save Field from the fire he lit, Clarke alleged, pointing to evidence of Beer calling her name from the lawn and using a hose on the flames.
But Clarke said the evidence proved he was not making any real effort to put out the fire, and he did not want other people to help.
The injuring with intent to injure charge related to a bystander who took the hose from Beer to assist, leading Beer to allegedly assault the man, which defence claims was in self-defence.
Clarke said Beer continued to obstruct emergency services’ efforts and to swear and yell at others trying to help.
She alleged he was more worried about his car and had asked police to move it away from the fire.
Clarke said in the aftermath Beer told “significant lies” to police, claimed not to remember much and continued to change his story.
This was an effort to remove himself as the suspect “and to make himself look like the failed hero who attempted to save Miss Field from incineration”.
Because there were no eyewitnesses to Beer allegedly lighting the fire, the Crown relied on circumstantial evidence including his “lies”, what he did in the minutes before, his anger, where the blood stains were located, the timings, and the noises heard.
Clarke rejected defence’s suggestion that Edmond Cook, a former Mongrel Mob member who was staying in emergency accommodation behind the couple’s flat, had killed Field.
Cook gave evidence about having more than 300 convictions including for stealing cars, setting fire to them, burglary and violence against women.
He said his partner had heard “shenanigans” unfolding at the flat and urged him to check it out, which led to him discovering the fire.
Clarke described it as “ludicrous” and “outrageous” that he would be “unjustifiably” blamed for Field’s murder.
Cook and his partner, who also gave evidence, were honest, sincere and reliable witnesses, she said.
But in defence’s closing statement, Hannam said Cook was “a very bad man”.
“Violent, abusive, thief, burglar, robber, arsonist. He’s not an innocent man,” Hannam told the jury.
“In this case, Leigh Beer doesn’t have to prove to you that Ed Cook lit the fire but his history and behaviour cannot be ignored when answering the question of ‘who did this’.”
He said Cook being at the fire was not just a coincidence but an answer.
“The Crown cannot rule out that another person could have entered the apartment between 10.46pm and when the fire started at 10.50pm at the earliest.”
Hannam said there was no evidence Beer wanted to kill Field or that he wanted to damage the property.
If he was angry, that had passed by the time his friends left the flat, pointing to witnesses who described him as being “pretty chill” around that time, and there was no proof any anger was ever directed at Field.
Hannam believed evidence from a report detailing the movements of Beer’s cellphone showed he was not inside the flat when the fire broke out.
He did not accept Beer’s lighters had started the fire, saying ultimately they were the only lighters police “got their hands on”, and the butane gas lighter had not been hidden but accidentally knocked into the place it was found.
“We don’t know what other lighters entered that apartment.”
Hannam claimed the investigation was tainted by police bias and accused them of not being open to other explanations for the fire, saying there was a determination to charge someone and the focus was firmly on Beer.
He said Beer was outside the flat when he realised a blaze had broken out, and saw a figure at the door who said “She’s already gone, bro”.
Beer was “desperate” to save Field so he broke open the door and went inside but had to leave due to the fire.
However, Hannam said they were “wrestling with a blank period” so could not be certain exactly how events played out.
While Beer had a disjointed recollection of the night, that did not make him a liar, he told the jury.
“Leigh Beer can’t remember clearly what happened but what he did was obvious. He did everything he could to get Emma out.
“Emma Field was Leigh Beer’s soulmate. He didn’t kill her. He wouldn’t kill her.”
Earlier in the day, Hannam opened the defence’s case and called two witnesses.
One was Beer’s sister, Alyse Beer, who recalled how distraught he was when he woke from a coma following the fire and found out Field had died.
Justice Grau will summarise the case tomorrow morning and then the jury will begin deliberations.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
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