Mon 10 Oct 2011 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Denis Phillips 1.20PM: The teenager accused of murdering gay Auckland man Denis Phillips was heard in the street screaming "I've killed someone" on the night the victim was stabbed to death, a jury at the High Court in Auckland has been told. The Crown has made its opening arguments against 17-year-old Willie John Ahsee, who was 16 when 59-year-old Phillips was found dead in his Papakura home on July 31, 2010. "I suggest to you this isn’t going to be a case of whodunit, the real issue will be what the accused had in his mind," Crown Prosecutor June Jelas told the jury. Ahsee lived within ten minutes' walk of Phillips' Green St, Papakura flat and described the victim to police as his "boxing trainer". Jelas said Phillips, who was a temporary sworn constable and worked for police as a jailer at Manukau District Court, had a gym set up in the garage of his flat. She told the court the teenager went to the makeshift gym to train on the afternoon of 30 July. Jelas said in the early evening Phillips and another person went to a local Super Liquor, where Phillips bought Coca-Cola and cigarettes. The pair was caught on security camera and it is the last sighting of Phillips before his death. The Prosecutor says neighbours heard various noises from the flat through the night, which earlier in the evening were two people talking and the sound of laughter. A neighbour says it was out of character to hear any voices coming from the home. An hour later banging and thumping was heard for a number of minutes, along with the sound of furniture being moved around. One neighbour said they heard someone say something like: "Have you had enough?", "You've had enough" or "I've had enough". Jelas told the court that after 10pm neighbours of the teenager’s Prictor Street home heard the accused yelling and screaming as he made his way home, and one neighbour called police because he heard him shout the words "I've killed somebody". She said when Ahsee arrived home he was intoxicated and told his mother he thought he had stabbed and killed someone. His mother tried to calm him down and comfort him. He was taken in by police for detox, and when he was in the police car an officer questioned him on neighbours’ accounts he had been breaking bottles in the street and shouting that he had killed someone. When asked if he had killed someone Jelas said Ahsee "shrugged his shoulders, moved his head left to right and said 'Nah'." Jelas told the court that the next morning when he returned home, Ahsee’s mother asked him if he could remember what he had said the night before and he recalled saying he had stabbed someone, but when pressed for details he said "I don’t know, can't remember". His mother and two other family members took Ahsee back to the police station where Ahsee repeated to police his belief he had stabbed someone, then escorted police to the Green St. house, where Phillips’ body was found in the hallway, face-down on a heavily blood-stained carpet. The Crown says Phillips suffered four wounds to the upper body from a serrated-edged knife, with a wound to the neck which severed arteries, proving fatal. Blood was found throughout the flat after the stabbing, including in the bathroom, leading scientists who examined the scene to believe Phillips’ body was showered after he was stabbed. During the opening argument Jelas said Phillips was gay, and was sexually attracted to younger men whom he would from time to time make advances to and proposition. GayNZ.com's in-court coverage will continue during each day of the case.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 10th October 2011 - 1:18pm