By JO-MARIE BROWN and TONY WALL
About 40 family, friends and colleagues packed the Auckland District Court yesterday when a young investment banker was charged with manslaughter after the death of a man whose grass skirt was set alight at a staff Christmas Party.
Matthew Paul Schofield was also charged with causing disfigurement.
Gareth MacFadyen, a 24-year-old share trader, died on Monday night from burns to 70 per cent of his body.
His synthetic Hawaiian grass skirt caught fire in the men's toilets of the Quay West Hotel during the Merrill Lynch Christmas party the previous Friday.
Fellow office-worker Angela Offwood, who was also in the cubicle, received serious burns to her arms and body.
Schofield, a 26-year-old Takapuna investment banker with Merrill Lynch, asked for suppression of his name to be lifted.
His lawyer, Stuart Grieve, QC, said he did this out of consideration for fellow employees, some of whom "might unreasonably come under suspicion."
Mr Grieve told Judge Stan Thorburn that the incident had been a practical joke "gone terribly, terribly wrong."
"One can describe it as an act of stupidity committed in the atmosphere of a Christmas party where alcohol had been consumed."
Mr MacFadyen and Mrs Offwood were in a men's toilet cubicle when Schofield allegedly used a cigarette lighter to ignite the bottom of the skirt from under the toilet door.
Schofield, well-dressed in a white shirt and tie, stood staring straight ahead as Mr Grieve addressed the court.
Police did not oppose bail.
Schofield, who is not yet required to enter a plea, was ordered to surrender his passport, not to apply for travel documents and to live at his Takapuna address.
But Judge Thorburn, who remanded him to reappear in mid-January, granted him leave to travel to Northland over the holiday period.
Schofield had previously faced two charges of assault which police withdrew yesterday.
Many of those who came to see Schofield called into the dock waited to accompany him out of court once his appearance was over.
Yesterday, Jeanette Knight, the mother of the burned woman, told the Herald that Mrs Offwood had had three major operations in Middlemore Hospital this week - the longest, yesterday, lasting six hours.
She has had skin grafts to her arms and hand, her left side and left foot. Next week she will have grafts to her midriff and ribcage.
Mrs Knight said her daughter, a 29-year-old customer services representative from West Auckland, tried to save her workmate, Mr MacFadyen, as flames engulfed him.
Mrs Offwood suffered serious burns to her arms and body while frantically trying to beat out the flames engulfing Mr MacFadyen as her own clothing caught fire, Mrs Knight said.
"She was wearing a sarong and she had it pinned and couldn't get it off. All she could do was throw water on him from the toilet bowl and the basin ... The wounds are mainly to her left side where she was standing side-on to [beat] the flames down."
Mrs Knight said her daughter's face was burned all over, but only superficially and there was unlikely to be any disfigurement.
Mrs Knight has been at her daughter's hospital bedside since the tragedy.
She and Mrs Offwood's husband, Craig Offwood, and a sister have taken turns tending to her and putting oil on her face. Mrs Offwood is on morphine and receives food through a tube.
Mrs Knight said there was an emotional moment on Monday evening soon after Mr MacFadyen died. "His mother, Sue, came into Angela's room and held her and said she was passing on all of Gareth's strength."
Mrs Offwood is expected to be in hospital for at least six weeks.
Banker in court for 'tragic joke'
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