Policeman to blame for man's death - Crown

File photo.

A police officer allegedly beat up a man in the back of a patrol car who was subsequently fatally injured in a street accident, a court heard today.

When the frightened man fled, he was struck and killed by a street sweeper, according to the Crown prosecutor.

George Tipene Harris died on the way to hospital on October 3, 2004 after being hit by the truck. The man he was running from, Clinton Lyall Hill, 34, today went on trial charged with his manslaughter.

The Crown says Hill, who can be named after a suppression order lapsed this morning, is responsible for Mr Harris' death because he was so frightened of him he ran into the path of the truck while he was trying to escape.

He is also charged with assault and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He denies all the charges.

In his opening address at the High Court at Auckland today, Crown prosecutor Stuart Grieve said Mr Harris had been arrested by Hill after an altercation outside a south Auckland night club and was being taken to a police station.

Both men had been drinking and Mr Harris had been denied entry to the night club. Hill was talking on his cell phone when an altercation between them started in which Hill's jacket was torn. He arrested Harris, intending to take him to the Wiri Rd police station but instead flagged down a patrol car.

The two officers in the car agreed to take them to the police station and it was on the way there the Crown alleges Hill assaulted Mr Harris. Mr Grieve said Hill told the constables to drive to a car park around the back of a bank.

One of the officers left the car but the other stayed in the front seat. Mr Grieve said it was the Crown case that Hill assaulted Mr Harris in the back seat and outside alongside the patrol car.

Mr Grieve said at some point Mr Harris managed to get away from Hill which he was "fully entitled to do" because although he was lawfully arrested he was being "unlawfully assaulted".

"The accused had no right or justification for assaulting him in the back of the car or alongside it."

The officers drove around searching for him, eventually seeing him on nearby Ryan Place. Hill told him to get back in the car but Mr Harris refused.

"No doubt fearing further assaults he ran off again," Mr Grieve said.

Mr Harris ran off and was then hit by the street sweeper.

In the investigation that followed, Hill made no reference to the alleged assaults as he attempted to "cover up" what happened, the court heard.

Hill's lawyer, John Haigh QC, said Mr Harris' death was an ""absolute tragedy" but his client was not criminally responsible for it.

He said no assault took place and that Mr Harris was fleeing lawful police custody when he died.

The trial has been set down for two weeks.