'Important to familiarise witness'

Viliami Fungavaka.

In an unusual move the senior police officer in charge of a murder investigation has been called to give evidence for the defence in the High Court at Whangarei.

Detective Sergeant Trevor Beatson yesterday took the stand at the request of defence lawyers appearing for 47-year-old Viliami Fungavaka, who has denied murdering his partner and mother of two, Georgina Manuel, by running her over twice with his Holden Commodore in August 2013.

The trial is in its eighth week and Mr Beatson was the last witness to be heard. The Kaitaia-based detective did not give evidence during the Crown case.

Earlier in the trial, the jury of six women and six men heard from Crown witness Hohepa Fletcher, who gave details of seeing a car run over a woman.

Mr Fletcher said he saw from inside his house a man and woman arguing as she walked on the footpath. He said the man followed her in his car along Pukepoto Rd in Kaitaia and he saw the woman being hit by the vehicle twice before it drove off.

Yesterday, defence lawyer Greg Bradford questioned how police had dealt with Mr Fletcher in the courthouse prior to him giving evidence in the trial, and whether it was normal practice for witnesses to view security footage, photo books and audio recording before they took the stand.

Mr Bradford also asked why there was no mention in Mr Beatson's police notes of Mr Fletcher being shown CCTV footage, hearing 111 calls and viewing a photobook in a police room at the Whangarei Courthouse during the trial.

Mr Beatson explained it was police best practice to show witnesses reference material that they would be asked to refer to when giving evidence so that they could give the best evidence possible.

Browsing photo booklets was done in a controlled way with witnesses shown only relevant photos, Mr Beatson said.

"We don't want to ambush witnesses when they come to court to give evidence. My general practice when dealing with a witness is to ask them if they have given evidence before. If they haven't then it's really important to familiarise them with the facility and how it operates," Mr Beatson said.

Throughout the trial a Tongan interpreter has sat next to Fungavaka explaining the court proceedings. Fungavaka gave evidence and told the court what happened was an accident rather than a murderous intent on his part to kill her.

The Crown was to sum up its case this morning.