Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer is on trial for the alleged murder of his partner Emma Field and of arson at their New Plymouth property.
WARNING: Some readers may find the details of this story distressing
The tables were turned on a former Mongrel Mob member giving evidence in the trial of a man accused of burning his partner to death when a defence lawyer wrapped up a heated cross-examination by accusing the ex-mobster of killing the woman.
“You burgled that address, you assaulted Miss Emma Field, then you lit fire to the house, didn’t you?” Julian Hannam put to Edmond Cook.
“F*** you,” Cook repeatedly said. “I didn’t f***ing do it.”
Cook on Monday gave evidence in the trial of Leigh Matthew Frederick Beer, 33, who is defending charges of murder, arson and injuring with intent to injure in the High Court at New Plymouth.
It is alleged Beer murdered his partner Emma Field, 21, on May 27, 2022, by setting fire to the bed on which she was sleeping.
She was alive but likely unconscious when the blaze took hold of the Devon St West, New Plymouth, property, which is separated into four flats.
On the night of the fire, Cook was staying with his partner at the Braemar Motor Inn, an emergency housing provider near the flats.
During his evidence, he admitted he had been staying there since getting out of jail about six weeks earlier, even though he was not meant to visit his partner.
He said they were eating and watching television when his partner heard “shenanigans” unfolding next door and urged him to check it out.
Cook could see “some little white kids” gathered on the property’s driveway, but upon closer inspection, saw flames licking the roof.
He stood on a shopping trolley and jumped the fence from the Braemar onto the property, intending to help if needed.
Cook said he spoke with a few people as he walked down the driveway to the front of the property and tried to ascertain whether anyone was inside.
When emergency services began arriving, Cook left, walking along Devon St West before returning to the Braemar.
He told Crown prosecutor Cherie Clarke he left because with emergency services there, his help was not needed and he also did not want to be around “the pigs”.
“Me and the pigs, I don’t like them.”
Under cross-examination by Hannam, Cook accepted he lied to police in his statement when he said he had only visited the Braemar that night when he had actually been living there.
“It was either lie or get my ass thrown in the cells.”
Hannam suggested to Cook he did not want anything to do with the police that night, to which Cook agreed.
“I never want anything to do with the pigs, at any time in my life.”
Cook, who has distinctive facial tattoos, denied he was wearing a Mongrel Mob vest while at the fire, despite other witnesses stating they saw a man at the scene wearing such clothing.
He told Hannam he was no longer a patched member but accepted he had been for 23 years prior and that his father was once the gang’s national president.
Hannam asked if Cook was turning over a new leaf, to which he said “s*** no”.
Cook was matter-of-fact when asked about his criminal history, admitting he had been offending since he was 17 and had a rap sheet comprising 386 convictions.
Hannam traversed Cook’s convictions, which included stealing cars and setting them on fire, burglary, kidnapping, and violence - including against women.
Each time, Cook did not skip a beat when he admitted he had committed such crimes, often saying “is that all you’ve got, throw something better at me”.
Hannam suggested Cook had set fire to the cars he had previously stolen to get rid of evidence but Cook denied this, stating it was to stop others from driving them.
“Setting cars on fire is not setting houses on fire,” he then said, seemingly understanding where Hannam’s questions were leading.
The lengthy cross-examination was heated at times with Cook repeatedly swearing at the lawyer.
Clarke had to step in twice, once to point out there was no evidence to support one of Hannam’s suggestions, and Justice Karen Grau implored Cook to remain calm on another occasion.
Hannam put to Cook he had seen a group of people on the driveway at the property who then walked off.
He suggested Cook took the opportunity to burgle the place.
“You went into that building and you saw a woman lying on one of the beds in the bedroom ... she saw you and you panicked ... you realised that she might identify you because of how you looked ... so you threw the bed over with her on it ... and then, because you know that fire gets rid of evidence, you set fire to the bed of that room.”
Hannam said he then left the house and pretended to be at the scene to help, which Cook vehemently denied.
Under re-examination, Cook told Clarke he had willingly spoken to police about the fire and of all of his assault victims, he knew every one of them, but he did not know Field.
He also said that other than setting stolen cars on fire, he had no other history of arson.
Cook’s partner gave evidence next and said they had been together at the Braemar all night and then she encouraged him to go next door when she heard the chaos unfolding.
Under cross-examination, Hannam told her Cook was out that night, and she was providing an alibi for him.
“What do you say to that?” he asked.
“I say you’re lying,” she responded.
Earlier in the day, Adam Hearle gave evidence about how he came across the blaze and saw an upset Beer standing on the lawn trying to battle the fire with a garden hose.
He said the hose had minimal water pressure and was useless in the face of the flames.
The fire crews were yet to arrive so Hearle said he “ripped” the hose from Beer, telling him he was there to help, and instructed him to find a second water source.
He lay down, to avoid the smoke billowing from the flat’s windows, and continued to use it, though admitting in evidence it was not making a difference.
As he did, Beer “started laying into me with punches”.
Hearle, to whom the injuring charge relates, described around 10 “solid hits” to the head and insisted he did not fight back.
When he noticed fire crews had arrived, he told Beer to “f*** off”, reminded him he was there to help, and then walked off.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Nina Laird, Hearle was shocked at the revelation other witnesses claimed to see Hearle punching Beer.
“What?” he said. “No, no way.”
Laird suggested Beer had acted in self-defence because Hearle was angry with him for not letting go of the hose and began striking him.
She put to Hearle he had lied in his recollection of events because he “knew he went too far”.
“I did not take one punch at him,” he said, but accepted he may have sworn and given the middle finger at the fire crews, saying he felt they were not helping him.
The trial is in its third week and is expected to take up to a month.
The Crown alleges Beer and Field had been drinking and taking drugs together at their flat on the night of the fire.
They say Beer grew angry as the night wore on and after he was ditched by friends who had been at the house with them, he went into the room he shared with Field and, in a fit of rage, flipped their bed and set it alight.
Her unrecognisable remains were discovered on the bedroom floor with the overturned bed partly on top of her.
But the defence has told the jury it was possible someone else could have committed the crime.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
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