An 18-year old Otara youth has denied murdering gay Auckland man Robert Hunt last July. Hunt, 55, and described in the Auckland High Court as a quiet man who enjoyed stamp collecting, was stabbed and cut 42 times in his Ellerslie home in what police call a vicious, brutal and unprovoked killing. Dick Falsauvale is alleged to have been in a casual homosexual relationship with Hunt and police allege that the night before the death he told a colleague he was going to "smash his friend dead" and steal his TV, DVD player, stereo and Honda Integra car. After the allegedly unprovoked attack Hunt tried twice, unsuccessfully, to call emergency services and was later found by his flatmate, dead, with the phone still in his hand. Police say that Hunt would regularly phone Falsauvale on his cellphone and collect him from Otara. Falsauvale told associates that Hunt had made an unwanted sexual advance and was going to attack and rape him. He disposed of the stolen goods, returned the car to Ellerslie unseen but was apprehended three days later at Auckland airport trying to flee to Samoa. The case is eerily reminiscent of the death of Auckland celebrity interior designer David McNee last year. McNee died after being bludgeoned over 40 times in his Herne Bay home by Philip Layton Edwards, a transient youth he picked up on Karangahape Road for sex. Falsauvale's trial will continue into next week.