The man accused of murdering David McNee worked as a rent boy and had been in an eight-month relationship with a transsexual. Shona Samuels, aunt of murder accused Phillip Edwards, told the High Court yesterday her nephew preferred women but would "go with a man to get money". Edwards told her when she visited him in prison last year that McNee had picked him up in town and was giving him a lift. Ms Samuels said she wanted to know if Edwards knew McNee was dead when he left the house. "He said yes and he'd wrapped [McNee] in a blanket because he was looking at him." In the final part of a five-hour police interview played to the jury yesterday, Edwards admitted to the killing. "He thought I was gay so I killed him," he said. "I had a fight with him. Told him I'm not gay. I beat him up with my hands ... blood started coming out of his face and then I killed him with my hands." Also in evidence read to the court to the court yesterday was testimony from Edwards' former partner Chrissy, a transsexual with whom he'd been in a relationship for eight months in 2001. She said they lived together in Manukau Heights and Tokoroa.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 4th August 2004 - 12:00pm