Wife on murder charge 'suffered years of abuse'

Christine King. Picture / Amos Chapple

A woman accused of murdering her husband suffered years of abuse and had turned up at work with black eyes, her trial heard yesterday.

In evidence read to the court, former Te Aroha publican Bruce Thomas said on "two or three occasions" Christine King arrived at work with a black eye.

"I told her she needed more make-up to cover it," he said.

King, of Te Aroha, has denied murdering husband Wayne Roycroft by feeding him a massive number of sleeping pills and burying him in the garden of their Waihou home.

Mr Thomas, publican of the Palace Hotel from 1987 to 2003, said at the High Court at Hamilton that shortly after taking over the pub he gave King a job and quickly learned she was having problems in her marriage.

Mr Roycroft would drink at the Palace on four out of the six days it was open and Mr Thomas said: "After a time he got quite aggro and I had to speak to him about his behaviour. I told him I didn't want him in the hotel."

King's lawyer, Judith Ablett-Kerr QC, claims King and her daughters suffered years of physical and verbal abuse from Mr Roycroft before his death in 1988.

Yesterday the jury heard accounts of abuse Mr Roycroft had inflicted on King, her daughters and one of her sisters.

Drug and alcohol counsellor Eileen Varley said she saw Mr Roycroft in 1985 after receiving information from the then Department of Social Welfare.

She assessed him as having a drinking problem but said there were not the same resources available to help families of alcoholics then as now.

One of King's daughters, whose name is suppressed, described getting "seven of the best" with a strap on the hand from Mr Roycroft if she had not weeded the garden properly.

Another daughter said she had burned herself while making Mr Roycroft a cup of tea. She was being supervised by her older sister and Mr Roycroft held a knife to the older girl's throat.

One of King's sisters, Eleanor Mitchell, told the court she visited the couple's home once with her children and was chased out by Mr Roycroft wielding a broom.

The women were discussing Mrs Mitchell's recent separation from her partner and commented to Mr Roycroft about it when he got home from the hotel.

"He started calling me names and grabbed a broom and started to attack me," Mrs Mitchell said.

Justice Ron Young told the jury Mrs Ablett-Kerr would complete the defence case today.

- nzpa