Trial starts for tourist accused of using banjo to kill man

Ferdinand Ambach - pictured in court this morning - denies killing Ronald Brown with a banjo. Photo / Richard Robinson

A tourist who bashed a 69 year-old gay man with a banjo then repeatedly rammed it down his throat has gone on trial for murder at the High Court at Auckland.

The Crown alleges Ferdinand Ambach, a 32 year-old dive master from Hungary, murdered Ronald James Brown, 69, in December 2007, a month after Ambach arrived in New Zealand.

The pair allegedly met in 306 Bar in Onehunga before going back to Mr Brown's flat, in the same suburb.

Ambach denies murdering Mr Brown.

Opening the Crown case today, prosecutor Nick Williams told a jury of nine women and three men that a "misunderstanding" occurred between the men, with Mr Brown apparently wrongly assuming Ambach was gay.

A violent argument erupted between them where Ambach is alleged to have beaten Mr Brown severely with a banjo about the head.

Mr Williams said Mr Brown was struck five times before Ambach then used the broken off handle of the banjo to ram it down Mr Brown's throat.

Police said they arrived to find Mr Brown badly injured and Ambach screaming something in Hungarian and throwing furniture through an upstairs window and onto the lawn.

In a police interview, Ambach said he only could remember parts of what happened that night.

Mr Brown died three days later, on December 10, after his life support was turned off. The cause of death was severe head injuries.

This afternoon the jury is expected to visit the scene of the alleged assault, Mr Brown's former Onehunga flat.

The trial is set down for three weeks.