Gwaze murder trial jury out

The jury in the trial of George Evans Gwaze on charges of the sexual violation and murder of his niece Charlene Makaza has retired to consider its verdicts.

It went out at 11.20am, after a summing up by Justice Lester Chisholm that begun at 9.30am today.

The crown says the 10-year-old girl, who lived as part of 54-year-old Gwaze's household, died of suffocation after a sex attack, but the defence says she died of an overwhelming infection associated with congenital HIV, a condition she had been born with.

- NZPA