Marice McGregor trial: It was partly fantasy, claims accused

The jury in the trial of murder accused Dean Mulligan yesterday heard how he and Marice McGregor had a "fantasised relationship", developed from their mutual experiences of abuse, which Mulligan had broken off the day before Ms McGregor was last seen.
Mulligan, 43, is on trial in the High Court at Wanganui for the murder of Ms McGregor, whose body was found on May 13, 2010 in a ravine off State Highway 4, about 50km north of Wanganui.
The Crown alleges Mulligan killed Ms McGregor with three blows to the head from an iron bar.
In his first recorded interview at the Feilding police station on April 30, 2010, Mulligan said his relationship with Ms McGregor started to develop about two years ago, when they met again after first encountering each other in a Wanganui bar about 16 years ago.
He knew of her when he was at school, regularly seeing her at the public pools, but they didn't really speak, he said.
Their relationship developed over their mutual experiences with abuse. She told him she had been sexually abused when she was very young, and they talked a lot about it, he said.
Their relationship grew without him realising it was doing so, he said. About a year before she disappeared it got more serious and became sexual.
It became increasingly sexual in the months before she was last seen, but Mulligan maintained that they never had intercourse because of his guilt over his wife.
Mulligan said his wife believed he was trying to help Ms McGregor and trying to get her into counselling, but did not know that their relationship had become sexual. He told the officer she "won't be happy" if she found out about Ms McGregor, and that "really, I wouldn't want her to know".
In the interview, Mulligan said he last seen Ms McGregor on Sunday, April 18, when he confronted her about a phone call she had made to his pastor, John Sefton, who also gave evidence yesterday.
Mulligan said Ms McGregor had called Mr Sefton asking him to speak to him because she was concerned that Mulligan was in deep financial difficulties and may commit suicide.
She told Mr Sefton she was Mulligan's girlfriend and they were going to get married.
Mulligan said it was a "shock to him" to hear from his pastor about marrying Ms McGregor, so he decided to end their relationship for good.
He went to her home on April 18, the day before she was last seen, to break it off. The pair engaged in a sexual act before Mulligan said he told her he did not want any more to do with her because she was "taking it too far" and he wanted to call it quits for good.
He said he spoke to her three times on the phone the next day to reiterate that he wanted to call it off and the last he heard from her was two text messages saying "sorry I'm late" and "I'm at Lismore" on April 19.
He said he did not know what the texts were about and assumed they were meant for someone else. He denied ever travelling on the Parapara with Ms McGregor, except for one trip to Raetihi in mid-2009, and had never picked up firewood or pine cones with her.
He said she never loaned him money - he loaned her $6000 that was paid back by her brother, Rowan McGregor, and she did not pay for any surgery for him.
Other witnesses to appear yesterday included two men who both gave evidence that Mulligan confessed to them that he killed Ms McGregor.
Brian Signal, a stranger to Mulligan, met him on a riverbank near the Feilding Motor Camp on May 25, 2010, when Mulligan approached him to talk with him about his car.
Mr Signal said Mulligan had told him he and his girlfriend had separated. Mr Signal clarified what he said by asking if she had left him, or gone missing "like that lady in Wanganui", to which Mulligan said "Yeah, that's her".
Mulligan went on to tell him they had been scouting a place for her to grow marijuana, and in a rage he hit her, then panicked and left her.
"I said, 'What, you just left her for dead then, did you?' and he said 'Yes'."
Mr Signal said Mulligan showed him a written confession and said he was turning himself in.
Later that afternoon, Mulligan was picked up and driven to the Palmerston North Police Station by his pastor, John Sefton, who told the court yesterday that on the drive over, Mulligan confessed to him. About 10 minutes into the car ride, Mulligan said to him "I think I done it", and went on to repeat the story he told Mr Signal, adding he and Ms McGregor had driven a few kilometres up the Parapara and stopped at a bend. He said he was just helping her find a spot to plant the marijuana, then it was up to her.
Mr Sefton said Mulligan then started talking about a "bar".
The court also heard from Gregory Windle, who was driving up the Parapara on his way home on April 15, when he saw Ms McGregor walking along the roadside.
She had a "dishevelled" appearance and had dirt on the knees of her pants.
Mr Windle and his son helped Ms McGregor move her car, and when they got back to his vehicle, a van was parked behind him. There was a man in the van, who had a "grimset face". It soon became obvious that this was the woman's friend, and they left.
The trial continues today.