KEY POINTS:
The man charged with murdering a Wanganui barmaid told the High Court in Wellington today that a former girlfriend was the killer.
Shane Randle, 28, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tania McKenzie on her 20th birthday. He also denies two charges of sexually violating her.
Randle was a bouncer at Wanganui's Red Lion Inn, where Ms McKenzie also worked, at the time of the murder.
Ms McKenzie's naked and brutally beaten body was found floating in the Whanganui River on January 7, 2005.
Opening the case for the defence, lawyer Greg King told the court this was a case of "whodunnit" -- the crown says it was Randle, Randle says it was Dana Perry, the woman he was seeing while in a live-in relationship with another woman.
Randle told the court he met Ms McKenzie through work and had socialised with her. It was "the start of a friendship," he said.
Responding to his lawyer's direct questions, Randle said he did not kill Ms McKenzie and did not sexually violate her.
He said January 6 was an ordinary day for him. He dropped Ms Perry off to work at the Red Lion at 6pm, then returned there himself, but not to work, at about 8.30pm and drank and played pool until Ms Perry finished work at 10pm.
The group he was with were all drinking quite heavily to celebrate Ms McKenzie's birthday, he said. Before he was ready to leave, Ms Perry said she wanted to leave immediately. When he did not leave, she got upset, swore and "slammed her way out of the bar" and into a taxi.
Randle followed her outside and she told him he was an idiot for ignoring her and that she wanted him to come home.
Ms Perry left and Randle said he just laughed it off.
He left the bar around 1.15am with the bar manager and Ms McKenzie, planning to continue drinking at another bar, stopping for burgers and again at a service station. They also stopped to talk to two people who then invited them to a party.
Randle said at that point he felt he had had enough to drink and had perhaps eaten too much and was feeling ill.
He said he and Ms McKenzie then headed towards her house. While walking he vomited and he and Ms McKenzie sat down. She said smoking a marijuana cigarette might help him feel better and she provided one, Randle said.
They then continued to her house, quickly, as she was complaining of sore feet and wanted to change her shoes.
Randle said he did not go inside the house, but vomited outside it. The crown says no vomit was found at any of the sites where Randle said he had vomited
He then walked home, arriving sometime after 3am to find his dogs had "shredded everything that was shreddable".
He said he cleaned up after the dogs, then Ms Perry and her friend, who has interim name suppression, drove up in a car with a smashed back windscreen.
The women came inside looking "ragged". Ms Perry was dirty with mud and blood stains on her clothing and leaves in her hair. She told him she had wasted Ms McKenzie.
"She stated that we had seriously f***d her up," Randle said.
"Dana told me 'I thought you were f***ing her."
Randle said he told Ms Perry and her friend to remove their clothes and put them in a bag. He then went to the spot where Ms Perry said she had left Ms McKenzie, he said.
He found Ms McKenzie floating in the Whanganui River and took her red handbag from the track before returning home.
He said when he got home Ms Perry had showered and he heard the washing machine going, although he had instructed her to leave things as they were.
He said he did not know why he did not call the police.
"I wish I did call the police, but I think I just cared about Ms Perry too much."
Randle said Ms Perry was very upset and scratched him when he told her to leave his house, but eventually left.
The next morning he drove to a remote place and burnt the clothes he had worn the night before, along with Ms Perry and her friend's clothes, he said.
He also destroyed Ms McKenzie's handbag.
Under cross examination by crown prosecutor Andrew Cameron, Randle said Ms Perry, who visited his house almost daily for sex, knew about his partner, but not vice versa. Ms Perry was not jealous of his partner and lived "around" the situation, although she wanted to settle down with Randle.
Randle admitted telling police "a lot of lies", including lying about a scratch on his chest being caused by his dog, about what shoes he was wearing on the night Ms McKenzie died, and about having a punching bag at his house that caused abrasions found on his hands.
Mr Cameron suggested the lies Randle told were not to protect Ms Perry, but to protect himself.
"You could put it that way," Randle replied.
Randle said Ms Perry was "the major perpetrator" who started the assault, and she and her friend finished it.
He said he had kept his mouth shut for more than two years, but was not going to take the rap for Ms Perry.
Although the crown case has closed, Mr Cameron was granted permission interview the woman Randle alleges helped to kill Ms McKenzie and she will testify tomorrow.
Mr Cameron said she will say Randle's assertions are simply untrue.
The trial before Justice Ronald Young and a jury of seven women and four men continues.
- NZPA
