Man guilty of Alkema killing

Nika Abraham murdered Kate Alkema in what the Crown now says was a sexual attack beside the Hutt River.

A Wellington jury yesterday took an hour and 40 minutes to find Abraham, of Lower Hutt, guilty of Mrs Alkema's murder.

Mrs Alkema's older brother, John Theyers, who found her body, said the family had no interest in what happened to Abraham from now on.

"Whether he gets 10, 15, 20 or 25 years will not bring our Katie back."

The Crown prosecutor's reference in his final address to a sexual motive was the first explicit mention of it during the trial.

No semen was found on or near Mrs Alkema's strangled body but her clothes had been almost pulled off her.

In his confession to police, Abraham said he had rearranged her clothes to make it look like a sexual attack but in fact had only wanted to know the thrill of frightening someone. He said he intended touching her shoulder to get her to scream.

Prosecutor Grant Burston said something stopped Abraham carrying out the sexual attack.

"You might think he has then looked at her face, seen the blood coming from her mouth, seen her purple face, that she was dead, there are any number of good reasons that will occur to you why he pulled back from, or was put off from going further," Mr Burston said.

Justice Ron Young said he would save any comments he had for the scheduled sentencing on April 4, but told Abraham that the verdict "can hardly be surprising".

He asked for a psychiatric report on Abraham.

Mrs Alkema's husband, Peter-John, said he did not want to comment on the case.

Kate Alkema disappeared last April 13 while on a planned two-hour walk.

When she was late home, family members quickly organised a search and Mr Theyers found her body in bush beside the Hutt River.

A webbing strap was looped twice around her neck and knotted tightly.

Abraham, a trainee security guard, had recently moved with his girlfriend to Pharazyn St, near the river.

Two days after the killing he handed police Mrs Alkema's jacket but for eight days maintained that he had found it on a seat.

Then he told the police that he had blacked out and "came to" strangling her.

Mr Burston told the jury Abraham's claim that he blacked out was a convenient excuse for doing something terrible. He said other details in the confession showed Abraham knew what he was doing and that the confession was genuine.

"You don't put up your hand to being a killer unless you have done it," Mr Burston said.

Defence lawyer Bryan Yeoman had challenged the Crown's theory of the route Mrs Alkema had taken and how long it had taken her.

He said the theory was fatally flawed.

Also, evidence about Abraham's movements on the morning Mrs Alkema died cast doubt that he had the opportunity to commit the murder.

The defence said the strap used to kill Mrs Alkema was not Abraham's.

Mr Yeoman said no fingerprints or DNA linked Abraham to the killing.

- NZPA