Glenn McNeill. Photo / Reuters
NORFOLK ISLAND - The New Zealand man accused of murdering Janelle Patton told police he played a video game after stabbing her with a fish-filleting knife and dumping the body at a Norfolk Island picnic spot, a court was told.
Glenn McNeill told detectives he had hit Ms
Patton with his car after smoking cannabis and "thought he had gone too far to take her to hospital", the territory's Supreme Court was told yesterday.
The court was told McNeill confessed to leaving the 29-year-old's body at Cockpit Waterfall Reserve, covered with a sheet of black plastic.
Afterwards, he had driven past the police station on his way home, where he had used a PlayStation video computer console to relax.
The allegations emerged as the Crown outlined its case against McNeill, who has denied murdering Ms Patton on March 31, 2002.
When police interviewed him about the Sydney woman's death, McNeill said no one else was involved, prosecutor Dan Howard told the court.
"He told police he has not told anyone about the events of the day and has kept it to himself ever since," Mr Howard said, as relatives of Ms Patton and McNeill looked on.
He also wrote a statement saying he was "sick and sad" about what he had done, and had attempted suicide.
According to the videotaped interview, which will be tendered as evidence, McNeill said he bent down to pick up some smokes and hit Ms Patton as she walked along the road.
McNeill said he stabbed Ms Patton "just to make sure she was dead", Mr Howard said.
But the prosecutor suggested McNeill might have forced Ms Patton into his car under threat of violence and that he had not been entirely truthful with police about the circumstances of the stabbing.
However, defence barrister Peter Garling said a "very different picture" would emerge when all the evidence was put into context.
The Crown case offered no motive for murder and was complex and flawed, while the case for McNeill was "simple and straightforward".
"He is an innocent man who is not guilty of this crime," Mr Garling said.
The trial continues today.
- AAP
