TV star McNee 'choked on vomit'

Television personality David McNee choked to death on his own blood and vomit, a pathologist told a jury in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

Professor Rex Ferris was giving evidence in the trial of a homeless man, Phillip Layton Edwards, 24, who is accused of murder.

The jury has heard that the 55-year-old interior designer picked Edwards up in Karangahape Rd last July.

Mr McNee was found dead two days later in his St Marys Bay home.

His naked body was wrapped in bedclothes, and his head and face were severely beaten.

Professor Ferris said at least 10 blows, and perhaps as many as 40, rendered Mr McNee unconscious and also caused him to bleed from the nose and mouth.

Lying unconscious and face upwards, Mr McNee choked to death.

Cross-examined by defence counsel Roy Wade, Professor Ferris said Mr McNee might have had a better chance of survival if he had fallen differently.

He said Mr McNee was probably naked and upright when the beating started, but lost consciousness and fell to the floor, where the beating continued.

Professor Ferris declined to comment on a suggestion by Mr Wade that it was a "frenzied" attack.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Wade said Edwards attacked Mr McNee because of what he did to him in the bedroom.