Tourist on trial over banjo killing of elderly gay man

Ferdinand Ambach denies killing Ronald Brown with a banjo. Photo / Richard Robinson

A Hungarian tourist allegedly bashed an elderly gay man with a banjo before ramming the neck of the instrument down his throat after the victim supposedly made sexual advances towards him, a court has heard.

Ferdinand Ambach, a 32-year-old dive master from Hungary, went on trial at the High Court at Auckland yesterday for the murder of Ronald James Brown, 69, in December 2007.

The men met in Onehunga's 306 Bar before they went to a liquor store. After buying beer there they went to Mr Brown's flat in Matiere St and continued drinking.

Later that night neighbours heard loud "crashing and banging" and about 12.30am a neighbour in an adjacent flat phoned Mr Brown and asked if he should call police.

After hesitating, Mr Brown said that he should and the "prick's broken the door". More noises were heard and the neighbour could feel the vibrations through the wall.

Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Nick Williams said a "misunderstanding" occurred between the men with Mr Brown apparently wrongly assuming that Ambach was gay.

Police arrived at 12.38am and couldn't find the disturbance so went to another job. More neighbours called 111 at 12.50am and they returned just after 1am and witnessed the accused in an upstairs room, agitated, shouting and trying to throw a double bed out the window.

When an officer entered the flat they found Mr Brown slumped across the bottom of the stairs with bits of broken furniture and glass over him.

"There were obvious gashes to the top of his head ... and blood splatter on the walls," Mr Williams said.

A broken red banjo lay nearby and the neck of it was jammed in his mouth. Because he was breathing around it he was making a strange sound like he was snoring, he said.

The Crown case is that Ambach struck the 69-year-old five times with the 2.7kg banjo. He died three days later, from major head injuries, after his life support was switched off.

The Hungarian was found upstairs and arrested.

A nurse will testify that as he was being driven to hospital to be treated for a cut to his hand, Ambach allegedly said, "I should have killed him, I should have killed him," and, "I'm going to kill you."

In a police interview, Ambach said he could only remember parts of the night and had "flashes" of Mr Brown placing his hand on his groin and chasing him around the table.

Mr Williams said the Crown would prove Ambach meant to kill him or injure him knowing that he could die.

"He didn't just want to disable him but hit him again and again and again."

Ambach's defence lawyer, Peter Kaye, said the jury would hear evidence of the spiking of drinks with drugs.

Mr Kaye said if the actions were involuntary then the charge was manslaughter - not murder.