Wed 24 Jun 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Ambach trial Day 3 Closed Circuit TV footage played to the jury in the Ambach trial today showed the accused behaving in a very animated fashion in a liquor shop while the gay man he is charged with subsequently murdering purchased beer and Coke. Ferdinand Ambach, 32, is accused of murdering elderly Onehunga man Ronald Brown in December 2007 after the pair met at an Onehunga bar, purchased alcohol and went to Brown's home. Ambach, who was found by police upstairs in the house after Brown was brutally attacked, has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The High Court jury heard evidence from police, ambulance officers and a hospital nurse today and was shown liquor shop security camera footage of Ambach's behaviour while Brown purchased drinks. At one point Ambach was waving his hands wildly in dance-like movements. He was also seen crouching down as if hiding in front of the counter. He appeared light-hearted but erratic. A police sergeant who attended the scene of the subsequent attack described his first impression of Brown's trashed home. He said the downstairs area was a mess, "like a tornado had gone through the place." He then saw Brown lying on his side. "I noticed [he] was unconscious and in a bad way... there were lacerations around his head, blood around his mouth and blood splattered on the stairs around him. He had the neck of a banjo in his mouth and was breathing around it in a laboured way." The sergeant described furniture piled on the stairs "like a barricade," and books heaped on top of Brown. A paramedic gave evidence that Brown's eyes were black and blue and swollen shut. The jury was later shown photos of the scene. Ambach was upstairs in an agitated state and had been seen throwing furniture, including a bed, through a window. The sergeant described police squirting pepper spray up the stairs. "It irritated him a little but but didn't seem to have any real effect on him." Ambach was eventually subdued and was sent to hospital to have a cut finger treated. An Auckland Public Hospital nurse described him being admitted, "shouting and spitting." She said that twice he shouted "I should have killed him!" and that he also said, to no one in particular, "I'm going to kill you!" He also said he loved New Zealand and hobbits. The nurse said Ambach did eventually calm down, but not before medical staff had to put a face shield on him to get him to stop spitting. The nurse said that in her experience Ambach's behaviour could be caused by a psychological disturbance, drunkenness, the influence of drugs such as 'P' or simply anger. The defence asked if Ambach's behaviour was consistent with a date rape drug scenario, suggesting the drug Lorazepam. The nurse said she doubted that was the case as such a drug would be a sedative which would calm a person down. "It never crossed my mind that he had had a date rape drug," she said, "he was too alert and verbal for that." The trial started on Monday and has two weeks to run.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 24th June 2009 - 9:35pm