Victim's partner tells of savage hammer attack

A jury in the Kevin Paul Weavers murder trial was told yesterday of a savage beating he handed out to one of the men accused of killing him.

Sue Hale said in the High Court at Auckland that Mr Weavers, the Highway 61 national president, and four men attacked her partner, Michael William Brittain, with hammers.

He was left with serious head injuries, a stab to his calf that exposed the muscle and a severely broken arm.

The attack was retribution for Brittain's allegedly setting up two friends of Weavers to be assaulted during a dinner party earlier that evening.

The Crown says that four days after being beaten by Mr Weavers and his associates, Brittain discharged himself from hospital and got Kelly Raymond Robertson and Michael Douglas Gould to attack Mr Weavers in the gang headquarters in Manurewa on September 27 last year.

Brittain, badly injured, waited outside while the other two went into the gang pad.

Mr Weavers died from blood loss after being stabbed in the leg.

In his opening address, Brittain's lawyer, Chris Comeskey, said the Crown suggestion that Brittain managed to talk Robertson, a former chapter president, and Gould, a Highway 61 life member, into going to the gang pad to kill Mr Weavers was a "ludicrous proposition".

Sue Hale told the court that they had invited a couple over for dinner, but another man turned up and assaulted the male. The couple left without eating, accusing Brittain of being no friend and setting them up.

About 20 minutes later, Mr Weavers arrived with four men armed with hammers.

Ms Hale said she was restrained but saw Weavers viciously hit Brittain over the head at least twice with a hammer.

"Mike didn't even have a chance to get out of the chair. He was trying to get up and Link [Mr Weavers] was hitting him over the head."

She said Brittain was screaming and protesting that he had not set up Weavers' friends.

When the men left, they took Brittain's prized Harley-Davidson motorbike and his car.

The Crown says that in hospital Brittain told staff he intended to get even. But Ms Hale said she never heard him speak of revenge or retribution. He only wanted his Harley back. On the day Brittain left hospital, he asked Robertson to help retrieve the bike.

Robertson told the court last week that when he raised the topic of Brittain's bike, Mr Weavers, who had "the demon in his eyes", attacked him with a knife. In the struggle Mr Weavers was stabbed with his own blade.