Kamal Reddy double-murder trial: 'Only killer could know details'

Kamal Reddy is accused of murdering Pakeeza Yusuf and her 3-year-old daughter Juwairiyah "Jojo" Kalim. Photo / Rob Kidd

A man accused of double murder claims his confession was a lie but the Crown says the details could only have been known by the killer.

Kamal Gyanendra Reddy, 42, has repeatedly denied murdering Pakeeza Yusuf and her 3-year-old daughter Juwairiyah "Jojo" Kalim.

The pair were found buried under the Takapuna overbridge in October 2014 but the Crown says Reddy strangled the adult victim then smothered her child with a pillow at the end of 2006 or early 2007.

The defendant himself made those admissions to undercover police officers during an extensive six-month operation but now says he made them up.

Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker took Reddy through the secretly-taped confession during which he gave details about what the victims were wearing when he buried them.

Ms Walker said the descriptions matched how the bodies were found, despite the fact the defendant said he had nothing to do with killing or disposing of them.

"You knew they were wearing their own clothes because you had to carry them from where you killed them to the boot of your car and the grave," the prosecutor said.

"You said you buried them deep and put stones on top and one of the specialist searchers said he found stones mixed in with the mud.

"Only you, the killer, could know these details."

But Reddy maintained he had fabricated the story for undercover police under fierce pressure to make admissions.

Ms Walker called his explanations "absolute nonsense".

The corpses of Ms Yusuf and Jojo were only found after the defendant told covert operatives of the North Shore location.

He took one officer to the exact spot and a photo of him standing on the grave was shown to the jury earlier in the trial.

Reddy - who has been in the witness box since Monday - told the jury the murders were actually committed by a man called James, who was in a relationship with Ms Yusuf at the time of her death.

His only role was to suggest a location where the bodies could be hidden, he said.

But the Crown challenged that version of events.

"I'm going to suggest you were jealous of Pakeeza. She was a very beautiful woman and you didn't want her seeing anyone else," Crown prosecutor Natalie Walker said.

"I'm going to suggest you were resentful of her because you paid money to get the flat in Howick and on the night in question, she wouldn't let you in."

Reddy said that was "not true".

In all recorded conversations between the defendant and undercover officers, there was no mention of James but today he claimed he had named him.

"Even though the name's not anywhere in the transcripts or the audio or the DVDs," Ms Walker added.

This week, the 42-year-old told the jury James came to his home in Otahuhu one night to confess he had killed Ms Yusuf and Jojo.

James allegedly enlisted his help by threatening Reddy that if he did not, his friends would come after him.

The trial continues.

Crown: He knew the details because he was the killer

Reddy says he only told the killer where to bury the bodies but played no other role in their murder or burial. He admitted under cross-examination he had made a series of "good guesses" when posing as the killer. The Crown says he knew the details because he was the killer:

• Reddy unwittingly told undercover police neither victim was buried with shoes. Neither were wearing shoes when found by the specialist police search team.

• He said they were not wrapped in anything. No blanket or any wrapping was found

• The defendant told police he had buried them in soil and used rocks to weigh them down. A specialist search team dug through mud before finding a layer of rocks and stones

• He said he dug a big grave and lay the bodies side by side without having to bend them at all. The bodies were found laid out together.