Murray Tait found guilty of murder

It took a High Court jury just over three-and-half hours to find Tauranga man Murray Tait guilty of murdering his 76-year-old father by bludgeoning his skull with a claw hammer.
Tait, 46, whose murder trial finished in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday did not deny causing David Noel Tait's death.
But he denied acting with murderous intent when he struck at least five blows to the top of his father's head in the bathroom at the 15th Ave home he shared with his parents on June 22 last year.
Mr Tait senior died in Tauranga Hospital the next day from what a pathologist described were "unsurvivable" injuries.
The attack occurred within eight minutes of Tait's 70-year-old mother, Janice Tait, leaving the house to walk the family dog.
The Crown said all the evidence made it clear that Tait's actions were "calculated and deliberate" and, after arming himself with the hammer taken from the garage and carrying out the attack, he wiped it clean and returned it to the tool rack, locked up the house and drove around for several hours until police found him driving on Turret Rd at 2.47pm on the same day.
Tait had walked into the harbour to try to avoid capture and a Tauranga Coastguard boat was required to bring him back to shore.
Tait's lawyer John Bergseng had argued that the Crown had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that his client had murderous intent or was reckless that death would ensue from the assault.
He argued the only safe verdict was one of manslaughter after taking into the circumstances of the accused.
Tait, he said, suffered from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, which affected the way he lived his life, and did not handle unexpected changes well, especially if forced upon him.
Tait's mother had given evidence that she and her husband had been concerned about their son's increasing reclusive behaviour and lack of contribution to the household expenses for some time and had sought help from several support agencies.
After being referred to ToughLove Tauranga the Taits were encouraged to confront their son to try to force him to change his behaviour, aimed at encouraging him to be less dependent on them.
It had "not gone down well" and their concerns increased after two episodes of violence towards them in the two weeks before Mr Tait was attacked. Justice John Priestly told the jury it had two choices - either it was murder or manslaughter and in just over three-and-half hours the jury came back with an unanimous verdict of guilty of murder.
Tait will be sentenced on September 16 in Tauranga.
Outside court, Mrs Tait and the officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Senior Sergeant Lindsay Pilbrow, refused to comment.