Wellington bar worker Daniel Peter McLean has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of girlfriend Helen Wickliffe.
He had been due to stand trial on a murder charge in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice by disposing of Miss
Wickliffe's body.
McLean, 27, had shared a flat with Miss Wickliffe, 22.
A depositions hearing last year was told the couple had fought over McLean's suspicions that Miss Wickliffe was seeing other men. McLean told several witnesses Miss Wickliffe had died after taking drugs he had given her, and he panicked and pushed her body into bush off Rimutaka Hill road. McLean threw Miss Wickliffe's dog into Manawatu Gorge after her death, but it survived.
Police alleged Miss Wickliffe had been strangled.
McLean's friend Julia Ruth McRae, 19, of Napier, pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice by helping to dispose of the body. She was sentenced on February 8 to a suspended 12-month prison term and supervision.
Justice Paul Neazor remanded McLean in custody for sentencing on March 8.
- NZPA
