US polo star's spa pool death: Lawyer for Joseph McGirr says water temperature could have contributed

Christchurch engineer Joseph McGirr (inset) is accused of supplying ecstasy to US polo player Lauren Biddle before she died in October 2018.

Hours spent in a hot spa pool may well have contributed to the "terribly unfortunate outcome" of a US polo player's drug overdose death, a lawyer suggested today.

Promising American polo star Lauren Mikaila Biddle, 22, died suddenly at Joseph McGirr's hillside house in the Christchurch suburb of Clifton on October 22, 2018.

McGirr, a 39-year-old civil engineer, denies supplying Biddle – and her ex-boyfriend Higginson – the Class-B controlled drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and attempting to pervert the course of justice by hiding Biddle's clothing after her death.

Lauren Biddle's handbag and jandals were buried by Joseph McGirr after her probable overdose at his Christchurch home in October 2018. Photo / Supplied

He says Biddle and Higginson snorted ecstasy under their "own free will".

The Crown and defence have completed their respective cases, as well as their closing addresses, in McGirr's jury trial at Christchurch District Court.

Judge Tom Gilbert will sum up for the jury tomorrow morning before they retire to consider their verdicts.

Defence counsel Rupert Glover, in his closing address, told the jury that a hot spa pool may well have contributed to the "terribly unfortunate outcome" of Biddle's death.

The spa pool at Joseph McGirr's house where Lauren Biddle appeared to have overdosed on MDMA and later died. Photo / Supplied

McGirr took the witness stand today and Glover said that unless McGirr is either a very good actor – which he isn't - or that his distress two years after Biddle's tragic death was "very genuine".

A shocked and upset McGirr today said he was "freaking out" after witnessing someone just die "in front of my eyes" when he buried Biddle's clothes and belongings in an act of "spiritual reconciliation".

Joseph McGirr is standing trial at Christchurch District Court for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Photo / Pool (John Kirk-Anderson)

He had an "innate desire to do something reverential" with her belongings, he said, and wanted to "commemorate her life".

"At no time did I ever try to hide anything from the police," McGirr told the court.

"I was very upset and shocked, affected by alcohol and drugs."

Biddle's bikini top has never been found, the court heard today.

McGirr claims he had four party pills at his house that night.

Someone had given them to him at a party, he says, and didn't know "whether it was ecstasy or some kind of herbal". To this day, he says he's not sure of the pills' "exact composition".

A green chopping board found at Joseph McGirr's Christchurch home was found to have traces of MDMA, or ecstasy, after Lauren Biddle's sudden death in October 2018. Photo / Supplied

After crushing one up on a chopping board in the kitchen, he snorted the pill's powder before returning to the spa pool where he, Biddle, and Higginson had been drinking and hanging out.

Claims earlier in the trial by his friend, North Canterbury polo player Higginson, that McGirr came out of the house to the spa with three 3cm long lines of ground up "kind of blue… bluey" powder which he took for ecstasy were "absolute rubbish".

McGirr suspects Higginson found a second pill left on the chopping board, crushed it up and snorted it.

"He would've snorted up anything that he could find," said McGirr.

He then suspects that Biddle "licked up the crumbs" on the board.

Lauren with her father Tommy Biddle in Millbrook, New York. Photo / Supplied

"Lauren was pretty interested in everything that was going on and recreational drugs was by no means an unusual item in polo type association," McGirr said.

"As far as the party pills are concerned, I didn't give them anything," he added, saying any drugs they took was "under their own free will" and didn't come with any instruction or influence from him.

Two other pills had been left in a container and put in a bread bin, McGirr says.

He suspects others must have taken them.

After taking the pills, Higginson said he at some point returned to the spa when McGirr told him Biddle was dead.

Higginson says it was him who pulled Biddle out of the spa and tried to revive her with CPR, while an aggressive McGirr - wearing an ankle bracelet for a drink driving conviction - refused to call an ambulance, alleging he said, "**** off. The police aren't coming around here."

Higginson bundled her into his car and drove to the top of McGirr's steep driveway where he phoned 111 and says he continued with CPR.

Emergency services arrived quickly but Biddle was declared dead on the roadside at around 1.20am.

But today, McGirr said it was him – and not Higginson – who tried to save her life.

He recalled turning around and seeing an unconscious Biddle "head down in the pool".

"I immediately pulled her out and started performing CPR," McGirr said.

After a while, he thought CPR was "futile". He looked back to the spa and saw Higginson "gurgling water".

"He was, in my opinion about 30 seconds away from drowning," said McGirr, who claims he pulled him out and put him into the recovery position, saving his life.

When Higginson came to and adrenalin kicked in and took an unconscious Biddle away to try and get help, McGirr says he was "in absolute shock ... I was very upset, to put it mildly".

Biddle was dead before she left his house, McGirr believes.

McGirr, "freaking and peaking", started tidying up. He placed the lid on the spa pool, put alcohol cans and bottles away, and when he was taking fish guts in a bucket outside, he stumbled across her clothes and bag. He saw her passport photo and a "huge amount of sadness" came over him.

McGirr went down the steep slope of his property "threw her stuff on the ground".

He used a shovel to cover Biddle's items with "leaves and what not" and pushed them into a cross formation, said a prayer, repeating the psalm "The Lord is my Shepherd" and then "kind of felt like she lifted".

He said it might sound a bit weird but "when someone dies in front of you feel like you need to do something".

"It was just a peaceful moment actually, down in the native bush with her stuff ... I was pretty upset to put it mildly," McGirr said.

"I just had an innate desire to find some kind of spiritual reconciliation immediately after the event."

McGirr then had a sleep wrapped in a duvet down on the ground on his hillside property before coming up to his house at 3.30am and being met by police officers.

He claims he told officers about the clothes immediately – and later led them to exactly where they were.

The Crown says Biddle was very drunk - nearly four times the drink-driving limit – and found with a high concentration of MDMA in her system around 15 times greater than the "normal recreational use" of the drug.

A post-mortem found her cause of death was most likely a drug overdose that caused a sudden cardiac arrest.