A 23-year-old Hamilton man has appeared in the Hamilton District Court over Raglan shooting. Video / Mike Scott
The fiancee of an Australian man murdered in front of her says "no punishment will balance out" the wrongdoing.
Mark Ronald Garson was due to go on trial next month for the murder of Sean McKinnon and threatening to kill his partner Bianca Buckley after attacking them in their campervanthat was parked atop a Raglan cliff during the early hours of August 16 last year.
Buckley was able to escape and ran several kilometres to find help.
At a hearing in the High Court at Hamilton this afternoon he entered guilty pleas to both charges.
Four of McKinnon's siblings watched today's proceedings via audio-visual link from Australia.
McKinnon, 33, and Buckley, who is Canadian, were both asleep when Garson approached their vehicle.
Mark Ronald Garson pictured in the High Court at Hamilton this afternoon where he admitted the murder of Australian surfer Sean McKinnon. Photo / Belinda Feek
The keen surfer was shot, after which Buckley was able to break out of the vehicle and run 2km in the dark along a gravel road for help.
Garson fled in the campervan, dumping it on the roadside near Gordonton on the outskirts of Hamilton.
Buckley told the Herald today that she didn't need to spell out the "magnitude of the impact that murdering my future husband before my eyes and then threatening to kill me has had on the life of myself and our loved ones.
"To be honest, I am tired of hearing about the murderer.
Police at the scene of the shooting at Te Toto Gorge, south of Raglan, on August 16, last year. Photo / Alan Gibson
"No punishment he ever receives will balance out his wrongdoing. I'm just glad he has finally stopped wasting everyone's time by pleading guilty."
Garson was handed down a first strike warning for the murder charge, which is a qualifying violence offence, by Justice Jagose.
He also convicted him on both charges and remanded him in custody for sentencing in December.
Crown prosecutor Jacinda Hamilton also alerted the judge that the two-month delay in sentencing would be so McKinnon's siblings could make the trip to New Zealand.
