Reid guilty of rape and murder

The Press

LIAM REID: 'There are plenty of murder cases where it has come out that the evidence has been planted.'

LIFE CUT SHORT: Christchurch woman Emma Agnew whose body was found in scrub north of the city 11 days after she went missing in November last year. Her alleged killer has gone on trial for murder.

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Liam James Reid has been found guilty of the rape and murder of Christchurch woman Emma Agnew, and the brutal rape of another woman.

A jury of seven men and five woman returned the verdict in the High Court in Christchurch this morning, finding him guilty of violating and murdering the deaf woman and dumping her body in Spencer Park north of Christchurch in November last year.

The 36-year-old was found guilty of the rape and murder of Agnew, 20, and the subsequent rape, indecent assault, robbery and attempted murder of a 21-year-old Dunedin student.

The jury was unanimous, and shortly after the verdicts were announced Justice Chisholm sentenced Reid to life imprisonment, and will consider whether to impose a preventive detention order at a hearing on December 12.

Agnew's father Henry Agnew said the verdict was "really, really good'' and the family were "very relieved'', although it was what they had expected.
 
"We miss Emma so much,'' he said, through a sign language interpreter.
 
"It has to be life. It has to be life.''
 
The family extended their thanks for the support given them during the ordeal.
 
"The deaf community have been really good,'' Henry Agnew said.
 
"I would like to say thanks to the police for all the work they have put in. The lawyers as well. They have done a fantastic job.
 
"We are a very close family so we will just keep going.''
 
He added their thoughts were with Reid's Dunedin victim.
 
"We  are really thankful that both trials could be heard together.''
 
Detective senior sergeant Tom Fitzgerald, officer in charge of the case, said the Crown would push for a preventive detention sentence for Reid.
 
"Certainly it is pleasing that it is finished now for all the team, as it has been a lengthy investigation. It doesn't give you great pleasure at the end. We wish we didn't have to do this investigation at all.

The verdicts were greeted with tears and gasps of relief from a courtroom packed with Agnew's family and members of the deaf community.

Agnew was a popular young worker in the community, and her murder sparked a huge response from the close-knit group who had been at the trial every day.

The jury was sent to a hotel at 6pm yesterday after listening to the defence's closing address and Justice Chisholm's summing-up.

It took the jury four hours in total to reach a verdict after hearing four weeks worth of evidence from more than 100 witnesses.

Defence counsel David Bunce urged jurors to disregard aspects of Reid's appearance or behaviour they found "strange to you or not to your taste".

Reid had been frank and had "let it all hang out".

His performance in the witness box was in contrast to that of his former girlfriend, who was "totally untruthful and unreliable" in her evidence, Bunce said.

The woman was "not a girlfriend reluctantly giving evidence" but rather she "lost no opportunity to present Mr Reid in the worst possible way".

Bunce said the woman had been misleading about the pair's sex life.

Text messages from her to Reid showed she was a willing participant in their rough sex.

The woman's cannabis dealing, which she had denied and the defence had been at pains to establish, was of "no interest" to the defence, "except to show she is a liar", Bunce said.

Bunce said the Dunedin victim had said her attacker was taller than her when in fact they were the same height.

The woman said Reid received phone calls during the attack, but Reid's phone records showed this not to be true.

She had failed to identify Reid's salient features his tattoos, he said.

Bunce criticised the woman's identification of Reid, where she picked him from a police photo montage. The pictures had been cropped to not show Reid's tattoos because police already knew the woman had made a statement that made no mention of that feature, he said.

Bunce said DNA evidence against Reid was "scraping the bottom of the barrel", using new techniques of uncertain reliability.

The judge directed the jury to consider the case without prejudice. He said the onus was on the Crown to prove the case, to the extent that Reid's testimony should not count against him, even if jurors found it unreliable, as there was no onus on him to prove anything.

The judge cautioned the jurors not to play detective and warned them to stay away from the internet.

- © Fairfax NZ News