Teenager found not guilty of artist's murder

Daniel Wikeepa was found not guilty of murdering Tauranga artist Harry Faulkner at this property in 2009. file photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A teenager has been cleared of murdering Tauranga artist Harry Faulkner.

A jury in the High Court at Rotorua today returned a not guilty verdict against 19-year-old Daniel Wikeepa after more than five hours of deliberation in the High Court in Rotorua today.

Mr Faulkner was throttled to death at a Gate Pa, Tauranga, home in December 2009.

The case revolved around which of two Wikeepa cousins, Daniel or the older Duayne, killed Mr Faulkner.

Daniel Wikeepa admitted punching and kicking his victim in a savage attack, but said when Duayne suggested that Mr Faulkner may be dead he immediately went back into the house and heard him snoring.

His lawyer Paul Mabey QC told the jurors they had to be sure Daniel had strangled Mr Faulkner, and, if they were not, he must be acquitted.

Daniel had admitted a violent assault but he was not on trial for that, he said.

He argued that Duayne was the only person who could have strangled Mr Faulkner.

Justice Mary Peters told the jurors in her view their verdict was the appropriate one on the evidence they had heard.

She also told a large contingent of Mr Faulkner's whanau who had been in the public gallery throughout the trial but who missed the verdict, that she was sorry they had not been present when it was announced.

She said she was very conscious the evidence they had heard over more than a week had been unpleasant and difficult for them to listen to.

"They [the jurors] plainly didn't find it an easy decision to come to," she told the whanau.

Outside court no one representing the Faulkners was prepared to comment on the verdict and there was no sign of any of Wikeepa's handful of supporters.

- NZPA