Accused blames spiked drink for rage

Hungarian Ferdinand Ambach's drink was spiked by the man he is accused of murdering and that - and unwanted sexual advances - sent him into a "monstrous rage", a High Court jury was told yesterday.

Ambach, 31, was drinking with Ronald James Brown, 69, on December 7, 2007, at a suburban bar before they went to Mr Brown's Onehunga flat.

A violent argument erupted and Mr Brown was bashed repeatedly with a banjo before the neck of the instrument was rammed down his throat.

He died in hospital three days later aafter his life support system was switched off.

Opening the defence case, lawyer Peter Kaye said the rage Ambach flew into went far beyond a drinking rage or a temper fuelled by alcohol.

"Something else was involved," he told the jury hearing Ambach's murder trial at the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

The only alternative was that the drinks Mr Brown gave him were spiked because nothing else could account for the "sheer, monstrous rage that took place in that flat", he said.

The defence case is that the accused was provoked by two unwanted sexual advances by Mr Brown, who was gay, and that attention, and the effects of the drink-spiking, caused him to act in an involuntary way where he wasn't in control of his actions.

If the jury finds Ambach was provoked, the murder charge could be reduced to manslaughter.

Mr Kaye said Ambach couldn't escape responsibility, but he asked jurors to consider whether "any ordinary New Zealander" faced with the provocation that is alleged to have occurred would act in the way he did.

It was up to the Crown to show Ambach was not provoked, he said.

Security camera film of Ambach and Mr Brown buying alcohol at a bottle store earlier in the night showed the accused was in a good mood then, as he was later during his police interview, which showed him politely answering questions.

"All that illustrates is that something happened to him and caused the most monstrous example of human behaviour you're likely to see."

Mr Brown was found crumpled at the bottom of his stairs covered in bits of furniture with head wounds and the neck of a banjo protruding from his throat.

"He has an image of Mr Brown standing on top of the stairs, asking him to come up," Mr Kaye said.

Ambach said he could remember Mr Brown touching him and feeling helpless and disoriented.

He recalled a chase, trying to barricade himself in a wardrobe and Mr Brown allegedly holding a knife or blade.

The next thing he remembered was police holding his hands behind his back.