Widow's anger after husband's killer acquitted

William Gillies

The widow of a man shot dead by his best friend on a hunting trip is furious her husband's killer has walked free from court.

A jury late yesterday found Taupo man Bernard Lee, 50, not guilty on one charge of careless use of a firearm, laid after Mr Lee mistook his friend for a deer and opened fire in April last year.

But the verdict has angered William Gillies' widow, Bronwyn Gillies. "Mr Lee put the gun up, took aim with 70 per cent vision and shot my husband in the back of the head. How would you feel," she said last night.

She said Mr Lee had played the court system and gambled on a not-guilty verdict, rather than accept responsibility for the killing.

"I have been through hell over the past 13 months. My husband is never going to walk through the door again."

She said her husband was "gone forever", but Mr Lee was free to "walk around and go back out in the bush and shoot someone else".

"He acted carelessly, and should never have gotten off that charge."

Mrs Gillies had originally been supportive of her husband's friend, but that support evaporated when it became clear he would defend the charge.

"Mr Lee is in denial about what he has done. He has never given my family any consideration."

The jury did not reach its verdict easily, with jurors twice returning to trial Judge Philip Cooper for guidance, then later saying they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

He sent them back to continue their deliberations, and the verdict was finally returned after a total of more than five hours.

Judge Cooper and a court officer had urged both the Lee and Gillies families and supporters - sitting on opposite sides of the public gallery - to try to keep their emotions in check, before the verdict was read.

"This has been a difficult case and obviously when this verdict is read some people are going to be disappointed about it," Judge Cooper warned, asking that they conduct themselves appropriately for the surroundings.

"Bear in mind the jury has had a difficult task to do."

Mr Lee burst into tears as the not-guilty verdict was announced, and there were audible gasps from his siblings and children.

He was ushered quickly from the court by family members, as Gillies supporters sat in stunned silence.

In his evidence, Mr Lee told the Rotorua District Court he lined up the patch of brown and what looked like antlers and fired.

Mr Gillies was hit in the head with a bullet from a .308 rifle and died instantly. He was 16m from Mr Lee in thick bush.

Lee's lawyer, Kevin Ryan, QC, described the Rotorua jury as "careful" and having "large hearts".

"I wish there were more jurors like them."

Mr Lee's elder brother Peter, who attended most of the trial but was not present for the verdict, said the case was a tragic one involving two "really close" friends who had trained as electricians and hunted and fished together in the Lake Taupo area for 36 years.

The fatal outing with Bernard Lee was intended as Mr Gillies' hunting swansong.

"He was having a lot of trouble with his knees. And because I had had a close shave with cancer we decided we were going to have a better life together," Mrs Gillies said.

With the Department of Conservation pulling down the hut and spraying the area with 1080 poison, Mr Lee persuaded his mate to go there one last time before all the deer disappeared.

The first call Bernard Lee made after shooting dead his friend on the morning of April 2, 2005, was to Bronwyn Gillies. She said yesterday she was busy at home when he rang with the news.

Mr Lee asked her to phone 111, which she did - as did he from the bush - thinking her husband was still alive and wondering which hospital he would be taken to.

Her life, said Mrs Gillies, changed irrevocably in the brief seconds it took Bernard Lee to pull the trigger.

Initially she had supported Lee and not wanted him charged - a decision made by Crown prosecutors. The Lees came to the funeral and the families were in touch, until Mrs Gillies found out Bernard Lee had been hunting again. She initiated a bail condition prohibiting Mr Lee from having contact.

"I hope they revoke his gun licence," she said, as she comforted - and was comforted by - her children after the verdict.

Peter Lee said: "There are no winners or losers in this."

His brother, he said, was "a broken man. He has lost his friend and his life as he knew it. He is not a criminal".

Peter Lee said he did not know what the future relationship between the two families would be.

Mrs Gillies said last night that she now wanted to be "left alone, and I want to try to get over it".

* Three hunters who pleaded guilty to careless use of firearms after accidentally shooting three men to death in separate instances in 2003 were all sentenced to nine months' prison.

Hamish Harland died when hunting companion David Alker mistook him for a deer and fired. Alker, who admitted the offence of careless use of a firearm, got nine months' detention. Also sentenced to nine months was 24-year-old Christopher Martin Davies who fatally shot Mark Leathwick in the head. He had pleaded guilty, but appealed on the grounds the sentence was too harsh.

And also in 2003, John Parker admitted responsibility for the death of Peter McIntyre, 52, who was shot in the Ureweras.

Other cases where the victims survived led to community service sentences.


Hunting in NZ

* 33 Deaths between 1979 and 2002.
* 37,000 people hunt for an average of seven days a year, a total of 260,000 hunting days a year.