Girl of 15 convicted of murder

A 15-year-old girl wept in court yesterday as a New Plymouth jury found her guilty of murdering Waitara man Kenneth Pigott.

Justice John Priestley remanded Renee Kara O'Brien in custody for sentencing on October 7.

O'Brien, whose name had been suppressed until the verdict, was jointly charged with two other girls, who have since pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Puti Irene Heather Maxwell, 14, changed her plea on Monday, and Kararaina Makere Te Rauna, 14, who has since been sentenced to eight years and nine months' jail, pleaded guilty a fortnight ago. Maxwell will be sentenced on September 30.

Mr Pigott's body was found in the Waitara River on the afternoon of March 11.

In his closing address, crown prosecutor Tim Brewer told the jury that O'Brien was far removed from the average 14-year-old. O'Brien - who was 14 when 60-year-old Mr Pigott was killed but had since turned 15 - was streetwise and older than her years, he said.

She had not been to school since last year, was used to roaming the streets late at night and was an experienced drinker.

Her view of life was such that on the night Mr Pigott was killed she left the house of a friend's aunt planning to steal a car.

When she got home at 3am, she told her father - who had woken up - that she was going out again and he allowed that.

Mr Brewer said a person had to be "pretty far removed from the average 14-year-old" to have the sort of determination needed to strike an adult male repeatedly on the head with a hammer and then rope friends into helping to remove his body.

After dragging Mr Pigott's body into the river, O'Brien got into his car.

Mr Brewer said that she had shed a few tears according to a 13-year-old witness, but they were soon gone.

She then drove past the police station, tooted the car's horn and laughed.

In a video interview with Detective Constable Stella Howard, O'Brien had told lie after lie.

"You must have regard to Renee's age, but don't be misled by it," Mr Brewer told the jury.

The jurors should have no doubt that she hammered Mr Pigott into unconsciousness, and it did not matter whether he died from his head injuries or drowned - either way she killed him.

The difference between murder and manslaughter was intent, said Mr Brewer.

"If, when Renee hammered Mr Pigott, she knew that what she was doing might very well kill him, but went ahead and took that risk anyway, then that is murder."

O'Brien sat through Mr Brewer's speech with her face hidden behind her hands. She also hid her face during her own lawyer's closing address.

Patrick Mooney told the jury that his client was guilty of manslaughter but not murder.

"Did she intend to kill? I suggest to you the evidence comes nowhere near that."

Mr Mooney told the jury it was not a question of probabilities and it must be sure.

"You have to decide what was going through [her] mind, but in doing that you have to decide what was going through [her] drunken mind."

The jury took just under three hours to reach its verdict, returning once to ask a legal question.

- NZPA