Jury sees site where Liberty Templeman's body found

Liberty Templeman.

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A High Court jury has travelled to Kerikeri to view the place where the body of slain teenager Liberty Templeman was found.

The trial for the youth charged with the slaying of the Kerikeri teen began at the High Court at Whangarei on Monday.

Liberty was just 15 when her body was discovered lying face down in a creek in the small Northland township on November 1, 2008.

The Crown alleges she had been beaten into unconsciousness, strangled, indecently assaulted, then left to die in the creek.

The jury travelled by bus from the Whangarei High Court, accompanied by Crown prosecutors, defence lawyers and Justice Raynor Asher to view several sites relating to the case this morning.

Media had been barred from revealing the trip would take place amid concerns members of the public may turn up.

The trip visited the scene where the 15-year-old's body was found, floating face down, and also the former home of the accused.

Police showed the jury members where a t-shirt belonging to the accused, with traces of Liberty's blood on it, was discovered in bushes outside the accused's former home.

SEARCH FOR DAUGHTER

A frantic father drove through the night to search for his missing daughter but had to identify her battered body three days later.

Andrew Templeman, father of 15-year-old Liberty, recounted the desperate night he spent searching for his "little girl" to a High Court jury in Whangarei yesterday.

Mr Templeman drove the three hours from Auckland to Kerikeri on the night Liberty went missing.

Over the next 24 hours he desperately searched the township for any sign of his daughter, stopping people in the street, searching parks and broadcasting missing person announcements at a local fair.

The next day, Sergeant Ross Laurie discovered her near-naked body lying face down in a Kerikeri creek.

Mr Templeman later identified her body at the Auckland mortuary.

The Templeman family sat in the front row of the courtroom yesterday – separated from the family of the accused by one empty seat.

That weekend had been Liberty's first trip away from her family and she kept in constant contact with her mother, Rebecca, with phone calls and texts.

At 4.40pm on November 1 she sent her mother her final text, saying she was having a great time but was missing her home and family. Mrs Templeman texted her back and became concerned when she didn't reply. "It was just so unusual for her not to have responded by that point."

After calling several of Liberty's friends, it was established that the last person she had been seen with was the accused.

At 10.45pm, Mrs Templeman rang the boy. He said he had last seen Liberty, happy and alive, at 7pm.

The accused sat with his eyes downcast throughout proceedings, occasionally sneaking glances at Mr and Mrs Templeman as they gave evidence.

Mr Templeman said that, in the year before her death, Liberty had "blossomed" into a confident young woman. "She'd be walking along the street with friends, if she saw me she would throw her bag on the floor or give it to one of her friends and come and just give me a big hug ..."

The trial is set down for three weeks.

- © Fairfax NZ News