Witness tells of accused's dreams

Katherine Sheffield

The man accused of murdering Northland woman Katherine Sheffield was tortured by bad dreams about her death, a depositions hearing was told yesterday.

Noel Clement Rogers, aged 31, is accused of murdering the 23-year-old at the Mangonui home of his uncle, Lawrence Lloyd, in September 1994.

He is also charged with raping her eight months earlier.

Judge Simon Lockhart, QC, found there was a case to answer and committed Rogers in custody for trial in the High Court.

Mr Lloyd served nearly eight years of an 11-year term after being wrongly convicted of Ms Sheffield's manslaughter.

The Court of Appeal overturned his conviction last August.

Leanne Parsons said yesterday that in late 1999 Rogers "lost the plot ... talking about Kathy".

She told prosecutor Steven Haszard in the Auckland District Court that Rogers was "crying and blubbering and bawling" about killing the 23-year-old.

Ms Parsons, the former partner of Rogers' brother, Willie, said Rogers talked about bad dreams and said he could not function and live a normal life because it was always playing in his head.

To Public Defender Michael Corry, she said Rogers talked of the incident in terms of visions and a dream.

Inspector Jim Taare, who is attached to the police commissioner's office in Wellington, told Judge Lockhart that in 2003 he started the third re-investigation into Ms Sheffield's death.

Cross-examined by Mr Corry, he said Mr Lloyd was convicted in 1995 of manslaughter largely on the basis of how he said he killed Ms Sheffield.

He agreed that no information in the 1994 investigation linked Rogers to the murder of Ms Sheffield, who a pathologist said died of stab wounds to the neck and chest.

Mr Taare said that in September 1994, Mr Lloyd admitted cutting Ms Sheffield's throat because she had stolen 10 pounds (4.5kg) of his cannabis.

He said he put her body in a sleeping bag and buried her in a shallow grave. A butcher's knife was found in the grave.

In 2001, police re-opened the investigation after receiving information from Rogers' aunt, Lydia Lloyd, Mr Lloyd's sister.

Rogers was interviewed three times.

In the first interview he denied any involvement in Ms Sheffield's death.

In the second he talked of having stabbed Ms Sheffield in the stomach and throwing the knife in the tide.

Mr Taare said no stomach wounds were found on Ms Sheffield's body.

In a further interview in December 2001, Rogers talked of arriving at his uncle's home in Kohumaru Rd, Mangonui, on a motorcycle, and indicated the killing took place in July 1994.

The July date was inconsistent with the date of the killing and Rogers had sold his motorcycle four months before the killing.

Mr Corry: "In those statements, or at least in the last statement, Mr Rogers questioned his own mental stability as he had no recollection of the killing until it came to him in a dream?"

Mr Taare: "That's correct."

He conceded that at the time, issues raised in the interviews were contradicted by established facts.

The officer agreed with Mr Corry that there was a discrepancy about the date of death, the motorbike, the murder weapon and the stabbing in the stomach.

He also agreed that Mr Lloyd's 1994 admissions were more consistent with known facts surrounding the murder.

Mr Taare said Rogers was again interviewed last year and he made admissions about the killing.

Mr Corry: "And whilst he indicated it wasn't a dream, nonetheless he visited the issue of dream at the end of the interview?"

Mr Taare: "That's correct."

Rogers told police he believed he stabbed Ms Sheffield in the stomach after a violent incident in which Ms Sheffield knocked Mr Lloyd unconscious with a wooden patu.

Rogers said he then cut her throat to put her out of her misery.

He told police he wiped up the blood and threw the material down a long-drop toilet.

It was found when police excavated the toilet last April.

Mr Taare denied an allegation from Mr Corry that the first time Mr Lloyd said his nephew was at his shack on the night Ms Sheffield was killed was in an interview last April.

He said Mr Lloyd claimed told police in 1994, though there was no record of it in the transcript of that interview.

The case

Noel Clement Rogers, 31, is accused of murdering 23-year-old Katherine Sheffield in September 1994 at Mangonui.

His uncle, Lawrence Lloyd, served nearly eight years of an 11-year sentence after being convicted of Ms Sheffield's manslaughter.

The Court of Appeal overturned his conviction last year.

Mr Lloyd woke up beside the dead woman, and believing he must have killed her, buried her in a shallow grave.