Video of the scene where a shotgun was accidentally fired after a booze and drug-fuelled bender.
A booze and drug-fuelled bender that was about to culminate in a group sex session took a fatal twist when a shotgun was accidentally fired.
In the High Court at Hamilton today, Tiffani Jade Sutcliffe today admitted shooting her best mate Rhys Gordon Williamson after a day-long drinking session thatincluded drug use at their Seddon Rd, Hamilton, flat on May 31.
Court documents reveal Sutcliffe and her 20-year-old girlfriend had been drinking pre-mixed bourbons earlier in the day.
Tiffani Jade Sutcliffe, 23, has admitted accidentally shooting her best mate after a drug and booze bender went horribly wrong in May.
By the time Williamson, who flatted with Sutcliffe in the house, got home from work the two women were drunk. He joined in the drinking session.
Sometime between 6pm and 6.30pm, a friend of the group, Anthony Brett Clegg - who was recently out of prison - arrived at the house and also began drinking with them.
A short time later, Clegg, 39, called an unknown associate to get a sawn-off shotgun and shotgun shells. It was put on the kitchen table.
The group then took GHB - gamma-hydroxybutyrate, a class B controlled drug that enchances sex drive - before Sutcliffe, her girlfriend and Clegg went to a bedroom for a threesome.
Anthony Clegg was about to take part in a threesome with Tiffani Sutcliffe and her girlfriend just prior to the accidental shooting.
Williamson then walked into the room holding the gun and, in a manner described by Sutcliffe as "playing around", pointed the gun at her.
She took it from him and pointed it at him before asking if it was loaded and almost immediately pulling the trigger, as the pair stood 2m apart.
After being shot, Williamson replied "of course it's loaded you stupid slut" before collapsing to the ground. He died shortly afterwards.
Sutcliffe's girlfriend fled the room and hid in the bathroom while Sutcliffe hid the weapon by wrapping it in a towel and putting it under a bush in the driveway.
Meanwhile, Clegg asked Sutcliffe if her girlfriend could drive him from the scene, which she eventually did.
Sutcliffe then dragged Williamson's body from the bedroom to the front step of the house before calling 111.
Tiffani Sutcliffe helped drag Rhys Williamson's body onto the front porch before ringing 111. Photo/Belinda Feek
Police interviewed Sutcliffe three times but she wasn't initially forthcoming with the truth.
In her first interview on the morning of the shooting, Sutcliffe claimed a makeshift weapon was used to shoot her friend. She said it had been made using a piece of pipe that was of the perfect width to fit a shotgun shell. She then hit the pipe with a hammer, which discharged the bullet.
Shetold her cousin, who didn't want his name used, the same lie at the scene on the day of the shooting.
"I went over there and there was him in a pool of blood. He was in the room and we dragged him outside and we were going to put him in the truck and take him to hospital but the armed offenders got here before then."
Meanwhile, many neighbours were in shock, and recalled hearing an argument out the front of the house after hearing a loud bang.
The neighbour described Williamson as "a nice man who was always friendly" and had worked on building the neighbouring apartments.
The shotgun used to accidentally shoot Rhys Wiliamson.
Sutcliffe also told police that calling 111 was the first thing she did.
But police eventually had a full account of events by her third interview in June in which she said she didn't believe Williamson thought the gun was loaded and that there was no aggression by either of them in their use of the weapon.
Sutcliffe was convicted and remanded in custody for sentencing in the High Court at Hamilton next month.
Clegg has already been jailed for his part in the shooting.
He appeared before Judge Philip Connell in August, when he said his recklessness in supplying the gun led to his friend's death.
Clegg was just five weeks out of prison at the time and should never have taken it there.
Williamson's family also blamed him for his death.
The judge said their victim impact statement said that if Clegg had not taken the gun to the house"they consider that their son will still be alive and their lives would not have changed to the extent they have as a result of their son's death".
