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 and arson.
WARNING: Some readers may find the details of this story distressing
The last time Emma Field was seen alive, she was lying on her bed, ready for sleep after an evening of partying with her partner and friends.
When one of her friends went into Field’s room to check on her, she said she felt “wasted” and was calling it a night, so her friend pulled a blanket over her and said goodbye.
But within hours, her unrecognisable remains were discovered on her bedroom floor with the bed she had been lying on flipped, partly on top of her, and completely torched.
The 21-year-old died in the New Plymouth basement flat she shared with her partner, Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer, on May 27, 2022, after a fire ripped through their home.
Field was alive but likely unconscious when her bedroom was engulfed in flames.
The Crown has alleged Beer overturned the bed she was asleep on, set fire to it, and “left her to burn to death”.
Now, the 33-year-old is defending charges of murder, arson, and injuring with intent to injure in a trial in the High Court at New Plymouth.
Beer rejected the allegations, with his defence counsel telling the jury it was possible someone else could have overturned the bed and lit it on fire.
The trial was scheduled to begin on Monday but after the Crown gave its opening, Justice Karen Grau had to dismiss the jury.
This morning, a new jury was empanelled and the Crown gave its opening again but another issue with the jury followed that.
Justice Grau discharged one juror and ruled the trial would continue with a jury of 11.
The courtroom’s public gallery was packed with Field’s family and friends, some of whom wore black hoodies featuring a photo of Field with a purple butterfly and the words “justice for Emma” emblazoned on the back.
Outside the courthouse, a parked purple American sports car with a numberplate dedicated to Field was hard to miss.
Opening for the Crown, prosecutor Cherie Clarke said Field and Beer had lived together in the century-old Devon St West property that comprised four flats since 2021. She worked at New World supermarket and he worked at Carter’s Tyre Service.
On the afternoon of Field’s death, the couple had been drinking pre-mixed vodkas together at their home.
Two friends, Teoke Taylor and Qwintin Tuari, came over and the four of them listened to music, drank and shared an ecstasy pill.
As the night wore on, they decided to go to town and Field tried on different outfits in preparation.
But when Beer allegedly made unkind comments about Field’s appearance in front of her and their guests, she quietly slipped away to their bedroom.
After realising Field was missing, Taylor sought her out to check she was okay and found her lying on her bed.
Field said she was going to sleep so Taylor covered her with a blanket and left the room.
Beer, Taylor and Tuari continued to socialise, but then Beer began talking about “odd things” including about committing suicide and his funeral, Clarke said.
Then “out of the blue,” he punched a glass window, she alleged, causing blood to splatter throughout his doorway.
His friends decided to leave but as they did, two others arrived.
The four made a plan to head off together but Beer also wanted to go so he walked towards the car they had all got into.
However, as he did, they drove off, leaving him on the footpath at 10.46pm.
Clarke alleged Beer went back inside the flat and into the bedroom where Field was asleep.
“The Crown says the defendant then took out his anger, possibly at being left behind, on that queen-sized bed and ultimately Miss Field.”
Beer allegedly flipped the bed and mattress and Field ended up between a wall and a bedside table, face up, under the bedroom’s window.
“The overturned mattress came to rest on that bedside table, alongside Miss Field and a little bit on Miss Field’s lower left leg.”
Clarke alleged Beer then lit the mattress, or the bedding, or both, on fire sometime between 10.50pm and 10.53pm.
“He has then, in the minutes that followed, walked out into the hallway, leaving Miss Field, in all likelihood unconscious, to suffer the effects of the fire that the Crown says he deliberately lit.”
The flat’s clock stopped at 10.58pm, indicating the fire was so hot that no one would have been able to enter the hallway to assist Field unless they were a firefighter.
Beer had allegedly gone outside and smashed the windows to the bedroom and the lounge, which Clarke noted would have added oxygen to the blaze.
He then grabbed a nearby fire hose and pointed it at the bedroom window while yelling Field’s name.
A tenant from an upstairs flat came outside but was allegedly told by Beer to “f*** off”. That tenant activated the fire alarm outside of his flat.
All of the flats at the property have fire alarms but this was the first and only one activated there that night.
A passerby made the first call to 111 at 11.02pm, about nine minutes after the fire was believed to have been lit.
Others began arriving to assist and one man grabbed the hose from Beer, telling him he was there to help.
But Beer allegedly responded by punching the man in the head numerous times, leading to the injuring with intent to injure charge.
When the first fire truck arrived, Clarke said a firefighter noted what he thought was two men fighting over the hose, and that they were too far away from the fire to use it effectively.
He tried to get information from Beer but he allegedly lunged at the firefighter.
When police arrived, Beer was lying on the ground refusing to move, yelling Field’s name and stating “she’s dead”.
But Clarke said he then became concerned about his Jag vehicle being parked close to the flat and wanted to move it, which he was told he could not do.
Beer was unpredictable and behaving aggressively, she alleged, so a decision was made to sedate him and he was taken to Taranaki Base Hospital, where he was later put into an induced coma due to soot being found in his airways.
Meanwhile, fire staff made their way into the flat to tackle the blaze, and Field’s body was discovered under the window in the bedroom.
She was unrecognisable, Clarke said.
Three days after her death, Beer was interviewed by police and denied being at the flat at the time the fire began.
Clarke alleged Beer’s statements continued to be “full of inconsistencies” and that “he has told lies”.
She told the jury that Beer either lit the fire intending to kill Field, or at the very least to cause damage to the flat knowing it would likely cause her death when he left her lying on the floor.
But defence lawyer Julian Hannam said Beer had maintained his innocence for the past two years.
He told police from the outset he had not overturned the bed or lit the fire and he had “fought off” the bystander who was trying to take the hose from him - the hose Beer was trying to use to put the fire out, Hannam told the jury in his brief opening statement.
“These are the things he told the police in 2022 and he stands by them now, today, in this trial.
“He has been consistent on those points each time he was talked to.”
Hannam said it was possible someone else could be responsible, and that Beer had not intentionally injured the bystander but rather was defending himself, or someone else.
The trial is scheduled to take at least three weeks and the Crown has indicated it will call around 60 witnesses.
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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