Youth accused of murdering Scots backpacker Karen Aim blamed a man trying to impress a gang called the Mongrel Mob, it was claimed yesterday.A school security guard said the 14-year-old accused brandished the bloodstained murder weapon in front of him.
Leigh Herewini, a friend of the accused, told a court in New Zealand the schoolboy had fetched the wooden baseball bat from behind a trapdoor at the back of his grandparents' house.He told the committal hearing at Taupo Youth Court: "It had a lot of dents and bits missing off it. It looked like it had blood on it."I felt uncomfortable. It could have been the bat that hurt that girl. He said he had washed it, tried to wash the blood off it."But Mr Herewini said the accused, now aged 15, identified another man as the killer.Calling him Brian, the accused said the man had been trying to prove himself to a notorious criminal gang, the Mongrel Mob.The accusation had first come in a phone call from the youngster hours after 27-year-old Karen, from Holm in Orkney, had been found dying in the street in Taupo, a lakeside resort.Mr Herewini,34, had been called to the scene in the early hours of January 17 when an alarm was triggered by someone smashing windows.He saw a policeman kneeling beside Karen, who suffered horrific head injuries, in a pool of blood and was sent to fetch tape to fence off the area.Later that day, the accused teenager called. Mr Herewini added: "He said he knew the person that supposedly done it. He said it was a guy, Brian, a Mongrel Mob prospect from Rotorua."He said he was prospecting for his father, who was in the Mongrel Mob."
Leigh Herewini, a friend of the accused, told a court in New Zealand the schoolboy had fetched the wooden baseball bat from behind a trapdoor at the back of his grandparents' house.He told the committal hearing at Taupo Youth Court: "It had a lot of dents and bits missing off it. It looked like it had blood on it."I felt uncomfortable. It could have been the bat that hurt that girl. He said he had washed it, tried to wash the blood off it."But Mr Herewini said the accused, now aged 15, identified another man as the killer.Calling him Brian, the accused said the man had been trying to prove himself to a notorious criminal gang, the Mongrel Mob.The accusation had first come in a phone call from the youngster hours after 27-year-old Karen, from Holm in Orkney, had been found dying in the street in Taupo, a lakeside resort.Mr Herewini,34, had been called to the scene in the early hours of January 17 when an alarm was triggered by someone smashing windows.He saw a policeman kneeling beside Karen, who suffered horrific head injuries, in a pool of blood and was sent to fetch tape to fence off the area.Later that day, the accused teenager called. Mr Herewini added: "He said he knew the person that supposedly done it. He said it was a guy, Brian, a Mongrel Mob prospect from Rotorua."He said he was prospecting for his father, who was in the Mongrel Mob."
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