Drug-fuelled rage caused my partner Nina Thompson's death, James Te Hiko tells High Court in Rotorua

Enraged and high on P, weed and alcohol, James Te Hiko beat his partner in a savage, prolonged attack that culminated in her death, he has told a Rotorua court.

The 44-year-old scaffolder testified in the High Court at Rotorua today where he is standing trial for the murder of Queenie Karaka, generally known as Nina Thompson, at Atiamuri in April last year.

Te Hiko has pleaded not guilty with his defence lawyer accepting the accused caused Ms Thompson's death, but arguing it is a case of manslaughter not murder.

Te Hiko told the jury yesterday he had been on the verge of entering rehab at the time of the attack and planned to marry Ms Thompson once he was clean.

However, he became enraged with her and demanded to know who else she was seeing when she told him: "How do you know I haven't replaced you already?"

"I smacked her clean off her seat, smacked her into the next room screaming f*** who is it?" Te Hiko told the court.

He continued the attack, knocking her off the toilet seat where she was sheltering and throwing her around so her blood was left on the walls, while demanding she unlock her phone so he could see who she'd been texting.

He disputed a forensic pathologist's claim Ms Thompson had been hit at least 70 times, saying it was more like four or five.

When his partner lost control of her bladder and bowels, he said he cleaned her up, apologised and asked her to phone the police so they could come arrest him.

"She was just moaning, telling me to shut up," he said.

When she became unresponsive Te Hiko sat next to her with a loaded shotgun under his chin.

He spoke of how he had freaked out when he hadn't been able to rouse her, kissed her, telling her to wake up but when she didn't, he had taken a shotgun from his wardrobe, loaded it, sat beside her on their bed and prepared to pull the trigger.

"Then I remembered my nephews were coming that morning to help skin two sheep and I didn't want them to find us like that," Te Hiko said through sobs.

He described unloading the gun then cuddling Ms Thompson to try to wake her.

He acknowledged he was unable to see her breathing or find a pulse but because she was warm he considered there was some hope she was alive.

To his lawyer, Harry Edward, he flatly denied striking Ms Thompson with the length of pipe the crown alleges he attacked her with.

He admitted he had "kicked her in the guts" before loading a P pipe for his second smoke of the night.

Referring to a phone call to a police officer, he denied saying he'd killed Ms Thompson, insisting what he had said was that he thought he'd killed her.

Questioned by crown solicitor Amanda Gordon about how much P he'd smoked that night Te Hiko responded "too much".

He told her his feet had been bare when he kicked Ms Thompson and he'd done so because he was in a rage; the kick had been to wind her.

Questioned about his denial he had used the pipe as a weapon, he said he had a theory about how it came to have blood on it.

"I say the police or ESR people put it there."

Prosecutor: "You chucked her on the bed and punched her in the head as she was trying to defend herself?"

Te Hiko: "I think so."

He agreed he knew he was assaulting her but not how much he was hurting her "because I am an alcoholic, a drug abuser".

The crown and defence will present their closing arguments on Monday.

- AAP