KEY POINTS:
A taxi driver's alleged plot to kill a priest underwent three revisions before the hitman he tried to hire realised he was serious and contacted the police.
The would-be assassin yesterday told the High Court at Auckland he met the taxi driver a number of times in June
2004 to discuss the killing of a Hindu priest the cabbie believed was having an affair with his wife.
The first plan involved the hitman luring the priest to a Mangere Bridge carpark on the pretence of talking about relationship problems.
But once the priest arrived, he was to "torture him, poke his eyeballs out, cut his tongue out, cut his penis off, kill him and chuck him in [his own] truck and roll it down the bank".
The taxi driver, hitman and priest all have name suppression at least until the end of the trial.
"He said he would give me $1500 and once the job was done he was going to give me a big bonus," the hitman told the court.
The taxi driver is defending a charge of attempting to procure a murder and six charges of threatening to kill.
In the plan's second draft, the hitman and the taxi driver were to go to a Mangere house the priest visited each Sunday to drink kava.
The driver allegedly told the hitman to wait for the priest to come outside, then "bang him over the head, then put him in the truck ... then take his body up north".
He promised to supply a hammer to use in the killing as the would-be killer did not have one big enough.
In yet another revision, it was decided the priest would be lured from his home to a Manukau carpark to be killed. As soon as the priest greeted him, the hitman was to "grab the hammer and bang it on his head".
The taxi driver allegedly told him to make sure the priest's greeting was "his last hello".
It was then the potential hitman realised the taxi driver was not just talking, and contacted police.
He told the court the taxi driver said: "I am very serious. I am doing all this running around. I am not doing it for nothing."
The taxi driver allegedly said he was serious about the killing and if the hit-man was not capable of doing it to let him know and he would "do it himself".
The court also heard that the taxi driver had allegedly talked about having his wife and daughter killed, too.
The man's wife, who gave evidence this week, said she had met the priest a couple of times in 1996, but there had never been any romantic relationship between them. She said she had not seen the priest in over 10 years.