Killing cold, calculated says Crown

Wood merchant Thomas Clyde Parrish was yesterday accused by the Crown of the "cold, calculating, controlled" killing of his estranged wife Dawn Parrish.

In his closing address in the High Court at Auckland, prosecutor Howard Lawry said that Parrish, 66, was consumed with anger and jealousy because she was seeing another man.

Mr Lawry said Parrish drove 270km from Kerikeri in his truck armed with a rifle with the purpose of shooting his 65-year-old wife at her pensioner unit in Beach Haven, Auckland, in July last year.

But Parrish's lawyer, Peter Kaye, told the jury that this was "no execution" as the Crown maintained.

The death of Mrs Parrish was the result of a tragic accident.

Mr Kaye said that in an argument over her infidelities, Mrs Parrish grabbed the gun from the bed where Parrish had put it.

A tug-of-war over the weapon followed and it went off accidentally, killing Mrs Parrish.

Parrish, Mr Kaye said, was unaware that the gun was loaded.

But Mr Lawry said Parrish had cleaned and oiled the gun that day and would have known if it contained any bullets.

The dead woman's daughter, who was on the phone from Perth at the time, heard her mother plead: "No, Tom, don't do it" before she was cut off.

Mr Lawry said there was evidence that Parrish had behaved in a "threatening, stalking and oppressing" manner towards his wife, who was scared of him and his guns.

One witness was allegedly told by Parrish that his wife "needed a bullet".

After the rifle went off Parrish had done nothing to help the stricken woman.

It was a "chillingly controlled" killing, Mr Lawry told the jury.

Mr Kaye said Parrish did not help because he was not thinking rationally after what had just happened.

He said the threats he had made were just hot air and were not to be taken literally.

Mr Kaye said the incident unfolded over a much longer period than the "execution" scenario the Crown portrayed.

There had been separations and reconciliations but Parrish still loved his wife, despite her seeing other men.

The pair had an argument over their relationship which led to the struggle over the gun.

Mr Kaye said that as an experienced hunter, Parrish should have known the gun was loaded but, rightly or wrongly, he did not.

Justice John Laurenson will sum up the case today.