Accused killer David James Gates had been a lovable child, with a normal childhood, his father told the High Court at Wellington yesterday.
Gates, aged 27, has admitted killing Wellington law student Gavin Edward Dash on September 27, 1999, but denied murder on grounds of insanity.
Mr Dash's dismembered body was found
in the Makara Hills, Wellington, in June and July last year.
John Gates, 61, giving evidence for the defence, said his son attacked him for his Freemasonry, saying it had harmed the family's spirituality, and called his father a sidekick of the devil.
Mr Gates said he had considered having his son committed in 1999. He had not done so, because he feared that might turn the focus of Gates' anger from his father to his mother and sister.
After Gates had been committed and charged with Mr Dash's murder, he had told his father he killed Mr Dash because he was evil and he was scared Mr Dash might hurt his new flatmates.
Gates' brother, Stuart, said yesterday, as his mother did last week, that Mark Middleton, stepfather of murdered schoolgirl Karla Cardno, had had a bad influence on Gates.
He said Mr Middleton had told Gates he would nail Karla's killer to a tree and that Gates had agreed to that course of action.
- NZPA
