In a defence which is echoing 'gay panic' defence, an Auckland school student told a jury yesterday he stabbed gay Ellerslie stamp collector Robert Hunt because he feared he was going to be raped. Mr Hunt, described by friends as a quiet, gentle, elderly man, died of blood loss after being stabbed and cut 42 times at his Ellerslie home in July last year. Dick Faisauvale, who was a 18-years old at the time Hunt was killed, said in the High Court that he just wanted to get away from Mr Hunt and lost his self-control. The jury has been told that the attacker held his victim by the throat during the stabbing. He denies murder but his lawyers agree that he is guilty of manslaughter. Faisauvale had previously told his lawyer that on the night of the killing Mr Hunt invited him around for a meal with his family but when they arrived at Mr Hunt's home there was no sign of any wife or children. But evidence has emerged that Faisauvale had visited Hunt numerous times for sex and had a history of engaging in same-sex encounters for money. However, on this occasion police prosecutors claim that Faisauvale took a knife to Hunt's home with the intention of robbing him of CDs and a CD player. Faisauvale's lawyers claim he was sexually attacked by Mr Hunt. The suggestion that the attack was mitigated by a sexual advance, or fear of a sexual advance by a gay man is a legal ploy echoing the ‘gay panic' defence which has been used successfully in court a number of times in past years. Gay panic defense relies on a judge or jury believing that revulsion at a sexual advance by a gay man is sufficient to to provoke an attack or killing and be a mitigating factor in sentencing.