Hungarian tourist Ferdinand Ambach will appear before the Auckland high court tomorrow on the first day of his trial for the alleged murder of elderly gay Onehunga man Ronald Brown. Brown was found by police badly injured and barely clinging to life after his neighbours reported a disturbance in the early hours of Saturday 8 December 2007 which included screaming and the sounds of glass breaking and other destruction. Ambach was upstairs in an agitated state, throwing furniture out of windows and required four police officers to subdue him. Whilst in police holding cells that night Ambach is alleged to have smeared a heart and the word 'girlfriend' in his own blood on the cell wall. Brown's life support was turned off two days later. Ambach subsequently pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault and intentional damage, but defense and prosecution lawyers agreed in a hearing on 11 July last year that there was a prima facie case to answer. The trial, which is set down for three weeks with 75 witnesses expected to be called, is likely to progress slowly as the proceedings will have to be translated into and from Hungarian for the defendant. GayNZ.com Daily News will have reporters and observers in the court for the duration of the trial.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 21st June 2009 - 12:03am