Travis Burns told a jury yesterday that he was a would-be bank robber but not a murderer.
The revelation that Burns failed in a bid to take money from a St Heliers bank came on the first day of the defence case in the Joanne McCarthy murder trial.
Burns, accused of murdering Joanne McCarthy at her Whangaparaoa home on November 12, 1998, told a jury in the High Court at Auckland that he had swathed his head and face in bandages as a disguise for the bank raid.
He said he put his arm in a sling and went into either the ANZ or BNZ in St Heliers, opposite the community police station, and told a teller: "Give me all your money, please" as he handed her a bag that he took from his sling.
But Burns, who said he was unarmed, left the bank when the teller refused to hand over any cash.
He told the jury he thought it was bank policy for tellers to hand over cash without question if someone demanded money.
He agreed with defence lawyer Mike Levett that he was hoping the teller knew the policy.
The failed bank job took place some days after the murder of Joanne McCarthy.
However, Burns said he had made preparations to do the job on the day of the killing.
He bought a first-aid kit and disguised his face with a bandage to go into the bank.
But he "chickened out."
Burns told the jury he spent the morning of the killing planting cannabis seedlings near Puhoi before going to Milford, where he was filmed on a BNZ bank surveillance video entering the building at 12.50 pm.
Burns said he was "casing" that bank to see how easy it would be to "rip it off."
He then headed for St Heliers, where he made preparations for the aborted bank job there.
In his videotaped interview, played to the jury last Friday, Burns said he bought the first-aid kit "in case he stubbed his toe or something."
Yesterday, he said he was telling the jury the real reason for buying it.
Justice Robert Chambers warned Burns that he did not have to answer questions that might incriminate him in relation to the cannabis cultivation or the bank jobs.
Burns waived his privilege.
Earlier in his opening address, Burns' lead defence counsel, Barry Hart, told the jury that police had the wrong man and the real killer or killers were still at large.
Mr Hart said the people responsible for the killing had been in a yellow ute seen at the murder scene.
"Those are the gentlemen who should be in the dock ...
"The Crown has got the wrong man."
For months after the killing, police focused on a yellow ute seen at the house about 12.50 pm - the same time Burns was captured on the BNZ video in Milford 30km and 30 minutes away.
The Crown now says the ute was a red herring.
Mr Hart told the jury that the bank video was a "silent witness" to Burns' alibi.
"The Crown must disprove the alibi ... otherwise he is entitled to an acquittal.
"The defence can demonstrate that he didn't commit the crime because the amount of time that would have been available was insufficient.
"It is put forward that he has an alibi. He was at the bank ... "
Mr Hart said the real killers were associated with the yellow ute, but despite intensive police inquiries, the vehicle had never been found.
"The responsibility for this terrible killing lies not with the accused but with one or more persons who are out there free - and the Crown or the police have got the wrong man," Mr Hart said.
Evidence has been given that DNA material taken from Joanne McCarthy's fingernails belonged to Burns.
Mr Hart has previously accused the Institute of Environmental Science and Research of cross-contaminating samples.
Yesterday, he said that the moment there was a "supposed positive DNA match," police developed tunnel-vision.
They went straight to the accused and stopped all other lines of inquiry.
Mr Hart said the defence would call DNA evidence.
There would also be further evidence of the sighting of the ute.
According to the Crown, Joanne McCarthy, who was found dead about 1.40 pm, was killed between 11.35 am - when she was last seen alive - and noon.
Pathologist Dr Jane Vuletic, who gave evidence for the Crown, said death occurred in the early part of the two-hour period between Joanne McCarthy's last being seen alive and being found dead.
But Mr Hart said the defence would call another pathologist, Associate Professor Timothy Koelmeyer, who would say it was very difficult to look at colouration of a body and say exactly when death occurred.
Mr Hart said there would also be evidence from a plastic surgeon, Associate Professor Don Liggins, that a 17cm scratch on Burns' abdomen, photographed in March last year, was more than a year old.
Crown expert witnesses have put the scar at between two and 10 months old.
Mr Hart said Burns would explain to the jury how that injury occurred while he was working as a plastic pipe welder.
The scratch was "well and truly in existence" long before the Joanne McCarthy murder.
"It was an old scar and the Crown is now trying to suggest it is fresh," Mr Hart said.
The Crown seemed to be saying that the motive for the killing was a burglary as Burns was short of money.
But the defence maintained that Burns had enough money.
"He wasn't broke and certainly did not commit this crime," Mr Hart told the jury."
Many items of value in the house were untouched, he said.
Burns was asked by Mr Levett whether he had ever been in a position that his DNA could end up on Joanne McCarthy's fingernails.
Burns replied: "I have never met her. I have never been to that house and I didn't kill her."
The trial continues today.
Murder accused tells jury of raid on bank
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