KEY POINTS:
The trial of two men charged with providing a false affidavit is in danger of collapse after a juror called in sick, taking the juror numbers down to 10.
Rene Gaustad Mangnus and Paul Grayden Turney are on trial for attempting to pervert the course of justice in an appeal against conviction in a case in which a woman was raped at Mount Maunganui in 1999.
Both men pleaded not guilty to providing a false affidavit in support of an appeal by Warren Hales.
Hales and Peter McNamara, lifeguards, plus Bob Schollum and Brad Shipton, serving policemen at the time, were convicted in 2005 of abducting and raping the woman.
Hales was granted a retrial, but changed his plea to guilty of abduction and police dropped the rape charge.
He was jailed for 18 months.
Prosecutors say the charges Mangnus and Turney face related to events that took place between August 2005 and April 2006.
Jury selection began on Monday but legal arguments took up most of the day, with the trial not starting until Tuesday.
On Tuesday night one of the jurors withdrew due to illness leaving the jury with seven men and four women.
Yesterday another juror called in ill, forcing Justice Patricia Courtney to adjourn the trial for a day.
If the juror is not able to attend, today Justice Courtney will ask for an indication of whether the juror is likely to return tomorrow or choose to abort the trial.
The trial would not be able to continue with 10 jurors and as the trail has only heard two days of evidence, it would be at an early enough stage to select another jury.
Crown prosecutor Nick Williams said the affidavit was produced by Turney after Hales and McNamara mounted an appeal against the convictions, and was based on new information that Hales knew the woman and she had approached him in a friendly manner at a concert in 1989.
- NZPA
