Police officer gives evidence in schoolgirl murder trial

Liberty Templeman. Photo / Supplied

The police officer who found the body of former Kerikeri teenager Liberty Templeman has told a High Court that he was speaking to the boy now accused of her murder just minutes before he found her body.

Giving evidence on day two of the High Court trial at Whangarei, Sergeant Ross Laurie said he had been called into work on the morning on Sunday November 1, the day after Liberty was last seen alive, because of the missing person case his staff were investigating.

Mr Laurie said his inquiries led him to the family home of the boy who was five days later accused of murdering Liberty.

The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of court suppression orders, was 14 at the time of the alleged attack.

He has been charged with murder and indecent assault.

Mr Laurie told the court he conducted searches in the town before he visited the boy's home.

The boy was by then widely known to be the last person who had been with Liberty.

The boy was not home, but he was invited into the lounge until he arrived back.

When the boy arrived home, Mr Laurie asked him some questions that might help him find out where Liberty was.

"He wasn't overly forthcoming, but he wasn't not saying anything. He was giving answers," Mr Laurie said.

Mr Laurie said he left the home and decided to stop his car by an unused orchard, wondering if anyone had thought to search it.

He said he followed some vehicle tracks and saw some flattened grass where it appeared someone had been walking. The track led him towards a stream.

On the way towards it he found some jewellery and, shortly after he found Liberty's body, which he initially thought was a mannequin until he recognised some of the clothing she was wearing.

He called for back-up and the homicide investigation was launched.

Earlier in the day's proceedings, another police officer, Constable Susan Morrison told the court the accused boy had been "difficult" when she asked him to show her where he had last seen Liberty, at Kerikeri High School where he said they had parted ways.

She said Liberty's other friends had assisted her, showing her where they thought she might have walked, but the boy was less enthusiastic.

"He appeared very quiet .. he seemed a little bit withdrawn," she said.

"When I asked him a question, he shook his shoulders, wasn't very forthcoming."

She said when the boy showed her the way Liberty walked she thought it was odd because the area was in a place he would not have been able to see from where he said he last saw her.

Liberty's parents also gave evidence yesterday, separately called to the stand to give evidence of the final months and hours of their daughter's life.

Rebecca Templeman told the jury of six men and six women about her frantic search for her daughter on the night of Saturday November 1, 2008, after the 15-year-old failed to respond to text messages.

Mrs Templeman told the court she phoned the accused boy on the night she was unable to track down her daughter.

She said she had contacted Liberty's friends and found out from them that the last person her daughter had been seen with was the accused.

She said she called him again the next morning because she could not understand a half hour time gap from when the boy said he left Liberty near Kerikeri High School and when he said he received a phone call from someone else.

Mrs Templeman spoke fondly of her daughter, often smiling at memories of their close relationship as she recalled her daughter's final months.

Liberty, or Libby as she was known, had been looking forward to a new life in Auckland after the family moved there from Kerikeri just weeks before she disappeared, her mother said.

A total of 40 witnesses are expected to be called in the course of the trial, which is set down for at least two weeks.