Bondage gear used in killing

Gordon Hieatt. Photo / Natalie Slade

The man who lived with the corpse of his girlfriend for more than three weeks intentionally killed her when he put a rope around her neck or strangled her with his bare hands, a court has heard.

Gordon Hieatt, 48, is charged with murdering prostitute Nuttidar Vaikaew and is on trial in the High Court at Auckland. He has told the court that he had no intention of killing Ms Vaikaew.

Crown prosecutor David Johnstone said Hieatt's relationship with Ms Vaikaew was deteriorating, Hieatt was running out of money and he had nowhere else to go.

"He did not love her. He did not even respect her. What he was interested in, despite his protestations to you, was sex," Mr Johnstone said.

He told the jurors that they should focus on a period of less than an hour when Hieatt and Ms Vaikaew had a fight in her Western Springs unit in April 2009.

Hieatt was "brooding" in the back room of the unit after being asked to leave earlier that day so Ms Vaikaew could see a client. At about 10pm, after smoking some marijuana to relax, he was called to bed by Ms Vaikaew and the pair began arguing about rent payments.

Mr Johnstone said Hieatt punched Ms Vaikaew a number of times, dragging her to the bed, strangling her and breaking a bone in her neck.

Police found her decaying body covered in bedclothes almost a month later.

Mr Johnstone said Hieatt had tried to explain his actions by saying Ms Vaikaew had asked him to kill her. He quoted from Hieatt's own evidence: "I think she wanted to die and made me do it."

Mr Johnstone said: "The Crown submits that it is very, very simple. He must have intended to kill her."

Hieatt's lawyer Peter Kaye said his client loved Ms Vaikaew and had contemplated suicide in the days after the killing.

Mr Kaye said Hieatt had done "something stupid" when he tried to quieten Ms Vaikaew by taping her mouth with masking tape.

She went "wild" and scratched his face. Mr Kaye said Hieatt had taken her to the bed to try and subdue her using handcuffs the couple kept in a box of bondage equipment.

When she began to get out of those, Hieatt grabbed some rope to tie the cuffs to the bedframe.

Mr Kaye quoted again from Hieatt's evidence: "Instead of tying the rope to the cuffs, I tied the rope to her neck."

Justice John Priestley is due to give his summing-up of the case today before the jury retires to consider its verdict.