Paige Tutemahurangi death: Man changed partner’s bloodied clothes after fatal assault

Richard Matthew Coburn, 26, of Hamilton in the dock at the Hamilton High Court on trial for the murder of his "on and off" partner Paige Tutemahurangi (inset) in their Kahikatea Dr, Hamilton home in July 2023. Photo / Belinda Feek

A man accused of murdering his partner punched her three or four times in the head before “cleaning her up”, changing her out of her bloodied clothes and into a dressing gown. He then allegedly put her to bed before ringing 111.

Emergency services arrived at Paige Tutemahurangi’s Kahikatea Dr, Hamilton house soon afterwards, but St John crews battled to kickstart her heart as they prepared to take her to Waikato Hospital.

Her “on and off” partner, Richard Matthew Coburn, 26, would later be charged with her murder.

Today his trial began in the High Court at Hamilton where he is defending the murder charge. His lawyer Roger Laybourn told the jury Coburn was instead guilty of manslaughter.

Crown solicitor Rebecca Mann outlined the events of the evening Tutemahurangi died, on July 1 last year, and how the pair had been in a relationship “on and off” for about four years.

Tutemahurangi’s family didn’t realise the pair were back in contact with each other, let alone meeting up, she said.

On the night she died, Coburn had been invited round to the 25-year-old’s house for dinner.

Before heading there, Coburn had about six beers at his brother’s house.

Arriving at Tutemahurangi’s house, he went to open the front door but it was locked so he went around to the back door and knocked loudly.

Tutemahurangi let him in but from that point on the pair argued about how loudly he’d been knocking and how the front door had been locked.

Tutemahurangi then decided to put their 18-month-old son - who started crying due to the arguing - to bed and Coburn followed her down the hallway.

Coburn then grabbed the toddler from her arms and put him in a cot in the hope it would stop him crying.

The arguing continued and culminated in Tutemahurangi telling Coburn to pack his bags and leave.

“She wanted him out.

“He didn’t react well,” Mann said.

Coburn pushed her, sending her across the hallway, and losing balance as she fell into the toilet door.

With her head on an angle against the door, it’s alleged Coburn then punched her in the face and side of the head “three or four times”.

She lost consciousness and fell to the ground and began “bleeding heavily from her nose”.

Paige Tutemahurangi was allegedly murdered by her partner Richard Coburn in their Kahikatea Dr home in July last year. Photo / LinkedIn

As she lay in the hallway, Coburn removed her blood-stained clothing, cleaned her face, put her in a dressing gown, and then put her in bed, before putting the blood-stained items in the laundry.

He called 111 at 8.37pm and then began doing CPR. Police were first to arrive at the scene 17 minutes later, followed by St John ambulance.

They noticed Tutemahurangi’s injuries included a “substantial beating” resulting in her right eye completely swollen shut and her left eye bruised.

As St John crews examined Tutemahurangi they found one eye unresponsive to light which meant she’d likely suffered a significant brain injury and likely brain death.

After being kept alive “by machine” she was pronounced dead on July 3.

Nineteen people will give evidence during the trial, including a neighbour who heard “some thumps” that evening along with family of both Tutemahurangi, who worked as an executive officer at the Ruapehu District Council, and Coburn, a rigger for Waikato Steel Fabricators.

Laybourn told the jury that this was a trial where the issues were narrow as his client admitted killing his partner, but there was no murderous intent.

“The defendant, he’s guilty of manslaughter ... It was not murder.”

‘She’d wear sunglasses’

First in the witness box was Tutemahurangi’s mother, Kelly Mahu, who told the court Paige was one of five children, but her only daughter.

Mahu had lived with her in Taumarunui before Tutemahurangi moved to Hamilton to live with Coburn.

Mahu recalled noticing her daughter had a black eye after an incident between her and Coburn at the BP in Taumarunui.

Tutemahurangi never said anything about it, she said.

Mahu last spoke to her daughter in a video call the night before she died.

“She seemed okay,” she said.

Tutemahurangi’s brother, Delayne, who lived a few houses down the road from her sister before she moved to Hamilton, said he didn’t see the pair together often.

“If I did I wouldn’t see him. He would sort of hide away in her room or come out and not say anything.

“His presence wasn’t really known if he was there.”

He said there was the “odd time” when they were living in Taumarunui that he twice noticed his sister wearing sunglasses, and if she forgot, he’d see bruising around her eye.

He also recalled an incident when he and his mother were staying at their house and had heard their son crying and then the couple arguing.

“All I heard was him say ‘if you don’t shut that f****** kid up I will shut him up for you’.”

He and his mother got up and it was then the couple remembered they were not alone.

The pair, together with Mahu, then spent more than four hours talking outside before he left for work about 10am.

Coburn made three calls in two minutes before eventually talking with a 111 operator on the night Tutemahurangi was injured.

Asked what happened he told the operator, “she just has a big head injury bro”.

When asked who did it, he replied “I did”, telling the operator that she wasn’t breathing and was unconscious.

Coburn’s father, Richard snr, also gave evidence about how his son would “button up”, or bottle up, his feelings.

“He wouldn’t express himself,” he said, before adding that he kept in regular contact with Tutemahurangi.

“She was good, nice, very independent. She was a nice girl, happy.”

He last spoke to her when he visited the night before she died.

Coburn has two previous convictions for incidents involving Tutemahurangi.

The trial continues.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and been a journalist for 20.