Son bludgeoned father to death, jury told

It took about eight minutes. Murray Tait armed himself with a hammer. He went into the bathroom. He bludgeoned his father's skull. After wiping the weapon clean, he left his father dying in the bathtub.
This is what the jury has been told in the trial for Murray David Tait, 46, which began in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday.
Tait has denied murdering his 76-year-old father David Noel Tait on June 22 last year at the two-bedroom 15th Avenue apartment they had shared for the past 16 years.
During his opening address to the jury, Crown solicitor Greg Hollister-Jones said that Tait had shown murderous intent by his "calculated and deliberate actions".
He said Tait armed himself with a hammer and bludgeoned his father's skull, then returned the weapon to the to the tool rack after cleaning it with a flannel.
Tait then left the house through the front door after locking the doors and windows - and made no attempt to call emergency services, Mr Hollister-Jones said.
"This trial is about eight minutes - that's how long it took for the accused to murder his father."
The attack occurred while Mrs Tait, 70, was out walking the family dog.
Mr Hollister-Jones said: "It took less than eight minutes for the accused to take a hammer from the garage, go into the house he shared with his parents and take it into the bathroom and strike his father at least four times on the top of his head, smashing his skull and then leave him lying in the bathtub fatally wounded but still alive."
After dropping the bloodied flannel into a bucket beside the washing machine, Tait locked up and drove away in his Subaru station wagon, he said.
"The Crown says the repetitive nature of the blows shows it was an intentional attack to the head and Mr Tait's intention was to kill.
"Nothing else makes sense from the number of wounds and the place of the wounds. It all took only eight minutes."
Mr Hollister-Jones said the victim suffered at least four blows to the top left of his skull and another to his left temple region above his left eyebrow. After being bludgeoned, Mr Tait senior fell backwards into the bathtub - with two blows striking his head when he was in the bath.
When Mrs Tait returned home she found the house locked up.
Looking through the partly opened bathroom window she saw her husband lying in the bathtub with blood on the wall but thought he had fallen over and sought help from a neighbour. Police had to break into the property.
Mr Tait senior died the next day in Tauranga Hospital.
Mr Hollister-Jones said the timing for the attack was calculated. Street CCTV footage captured Mrs Tait leaving the house at 9.38am and the accused standing on the footpath in front to the house at 9.46am. Two minutes later he was seen driving away.
Police found the accused at 2.47pm driving along Turret Rd. When stopped by police, Tait got out of the car and walked in to the Waimapu Estuary to try evade the police dogs.
Mr Hollister-Jones said Tait and his parents had lived together for almost 16 years but their relationship had become strained. The accused was a loner and a hoarder and did not react well to change. Son killed father, jury told
In April last year his parents sought advice from several organisations about Tait's behaviour and were encouraged to get him to start contributing to the household finances - which "did not go down well", Mr Hollister-Jones said.
In the two weeks prior to Mr Tait senior's death, the accused had been involved in two episodes of aggression towards his parents.
On June 12 he threatened his father with a stool then a brick after a heated argument. A second incident involved him "roughing up" his mother after Tait became upset when she had gone into his bedroom uninvited to get a tool.
During his short opening statement to the jury, Tait's lawyer John Bergseng said the accused did not dispute causing his father's death - the issue was over his client's intention at the time of assaulting his father.
"It's all about what was in his mind at the time. Of course you can't get into the mind of Murray Tait but you can listen to the evidence which the defence says does not represent the two elements to prove that he acted with murderous intent.
"The defence says the evidence will show it is not murder but Mr Tait is guilty of manslaughter."
Mrs Tait, who began giving evidence yesterday, said she and her husband had been concerned about their son's mental health for some time. Acting on what they believed was qualified advice they confronted him but "it had only made matters worse". She said her son's violent behaviour had been out of character.
The trial, which continues today, is expected to take six to seven days.