Mr Gowing emphasised to the jury the impaired man had not been held captive or detained against his will, saying such assertions were preposterous and rubbish.
Countering the Crown's claim the couple were the man's caregivers, Mr Gowing said he was a boarder in the house, free to come and go as he pleased. He read a passage from Karauria's statement in which she said he was a grown man who didn't need to be looked after.
"Like any normal person he can make himself a kai [meal], it's what he does while we are at work," she'd said.
The lawyer contended this rebutted the Crown's claim that the man's food had been restricted to only one bread and noodles meal a day. He reiterated that Karauria had told her interviewer that the man liked to lie.
"His evidence demonstrates his ability to make up things," Mr Gowing said. This had been demonstrated when in his first police interview the man described Karauria as a 'good person, cool' but changed his tune in a second, during which he'd levelled the brutality and torture allegations.
Justice Rebecca Edwards will sum up tomorrow before the jury retires to consider its verdict.
