Cop denies aggressive actions before shooting

Ian Lindsay Clegg, left, and John Ward Skinner are on trial in the High Court charged with murdering undercover policeman Don Wilkinson. Photo /NZPA

The undercover police officer shot in an incident which claimed the life of his colleague Sergeant Don Wilkinson says he could have been seen to have adopted a "martial arts" pose towards the people who shot him.

But the officer, who has name suppression and is known as Officer M, told a court today he didn't think walking towards these people would have been seen to be aggressive.

Officer M was giving evidence in the High Court at Auckland at the trial of John Ward Skinner and Iain Lindsay Clegg, who are charged with murdering Mr Wilkinson and attempting to murder Officer M. Skinner also faces a charge of assault with a firearm.

Officer M and Mr Wilkinson were trying to install a tracking device to a vehicle of Skinner's at his address in Hain Ave, Mangere, before they were detected.

They ran away but were pursued in a car and were found in a driveway at an address in nearby Earlsworth Ave, where they were shot.

Under cross-examination today from Skinner's lawyer Marie Dyhrberg, Officer M said he and Mr Wilkinson set off movement sensor lights as they approached the Hain Ave address but decided to run when a second light came on within 20 seconds.

He said they ran to Earlsworth Rd when they heard a loud revving of a car which they took to be coming from Hain Ave.

They went down an Earlsworth Rd driveway but shortly afterwards were confronted by two men.

Officer M said that after the driver of the car came down the driveway, he moved two to three paces forward to confront him and held his hands up.

When asked by Ms Dyhrberg if it could have been seen he was holding his hands up in a "martial arts" style, he said yes.

But when asked if walking towards the men could be interpreted as an aggressive motion, he said "I don't think so".

Officer M did agree, however, that he was prepared for a fight.

"I thought if it got to one-on-one I was not too worried because I knew backup was on the way."

Officer M said he at first saw only the driver - who the Crown says is Clegg - and then turned left to see a man behind the driver, said to be Skinner, holding a gun barrel which was about level with the driver.

He then said he was hit, receiving an injury to his left eye.

Officer M believed he was struck by an object as the right side of the face was exposed to the offender rather than the left and it would have been difficult for a fist to have struck his left eye from that distance.

He said he remembered hearing five shots rather than the six which were known to be fired. Three of the shots struck him.

Officer M said he was certain he heard three shots after the final one that struck him, and denied a suggestion from Ms Dyhrberg that Mr Wilkinson was shot first.

The Crown says the actions of Skinner and Clegg meet the legal definitions of murder.

Ms Dyhrberg has said Skinner thought the officers were burglars, did not intend to kill the men and self-defence would be raised.

Clegg's lawyer Stuart Grieve has said his client's only action was to hit Mr Wilkinson's colleague with his fist before Skinner came from behind him and to one side and then fired the shots.

The trial before Justice Geoffrey Venning is into its second week.

- NZPA