Accused killer: I worked as a prostitute

Gavin Gosnell. Photo / Supplied

The man accused of killing Christchurch schoolboy Hayden Miles told police he had worked as a prostitute, his murder trial has been told.

Gavin John Gosnell, 28, made the revelation in the first of three taped interviews, which was played at his trial at the High Court at Christchurch yesterday.

In the interview on November 2011 he told Detective James Haig that he and his then girlfriend Nicolette Vaux-Phillips went to Dunedin and stayed in a "$10 tent from Kmart".

Asked how he paid for it, Gosnell said, "I have a sugar mum."

When questioned further, he said he worked "like a prostitute" for a time, saying he "did it for a laugh".

When asked what clients he had he said, "Married ladies".

Police asked if he ever entertained male clients and he said his clients were "strictly women".

Gosnell also said Hayden had never made advances to him although he suspected he was gay.

Gosnell has denied murdering 15-year-old Hayden after a brutal and prolonged beating on August 22, 2011. He said he never meant to kill him and should be convicted of manslaughter.

The trial has this week heard graphic details of Hayden being beaten to death before being sawn into 12 pieces and dumped in two nearby graveyards.

His organs were buried in the backyard of a Christchurch flat.

Hayden was reported missing after going to see Vaux-Phillips, his friend, at the Linwood house she shared with Gosnell. His remains were found after a four-month missing-persons inquiry.

In a taped interview with police, Gosnell said Hayden showed up at his property drunk on August 22, 2011, and he "looked after him", putting him in the shower and giving him a couch to sleep on.

He told police he thought Hayden had shown up to his flat to profess his love for Vaux-Phillips.

Asked if he had seen Hayden since that morning, Gosnell said, "Not a word".

He said he thought Hayden had just left.

Yesterday morning, the court heard from witnesses with name suppression who visited Gosnell's flat on the morning of August 23, 2011.

One said they knocked on the door several times before Gosnell opened the door wearing gloves and jeans.

Gosnell told them they shouldn't be there.

He said "he had had a fight and that someone was dead on his couch".

Another witness said she "freaked out". When Gosnell was asked what he was doing, the second witness said: "He said he was cutting him up and was going to bury him around Christchurch."

Under cross-examination from defence counsel Craig Ruane, she said Gosnell was "upset" and his demeanour "just wasn't him".

The trial, before Justice Lester Chisholm and a jury of six men and six women, continues.