Family seeks victim’s body

As David Owen Lyttle faced sentencing for murder, his victim’s mother admonished him to look at her.

In a strong voice Lee Hall addressed Lyttle – the man convicted of killing her son, Bretton (Brett) Hall – and she recalled the time they had all holidayed together and how Lyttle pretended to be a friend.

‘‘David, you could look at me when I am speaking to you,’’ she told him. ‘‘You did not own what you did, you tried to run from your actions, you are a coward.

‘‘You know where Brett is. Please have the decency to tell us where he is,’’ she said.

Lyttle, 54, a builder from Halcombe in Manawatu¯ , was sentenced in the High Court at Wellington yesterday to serve at least 11 years of a life jail term for murdering Hall in May 2011.

Lyttle’s lawyer, Christopher Stevenson, confirmed after the hearing that Lyttle would appeal his conviction.

Hall’s body has not been found but he was last seen at his remote rural property above the Whanganui River.

Hall’s brother, Michael, also asked where his brother was. ‘‘We want him back so we can lay him to rest. Why are you still keeping him from us?’’

For years, Lyttle was a suspect in Hall’s disappearance but police thought they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

An undercover operation was launched in 2014 pretending to recruit Lyttle to an underworld group, during which he was asked to divulge anything that might attract police attention to the group. A jury heard a recording of Lyttle’s confession but Lyttle’s lawyers said it was false.

Lyttle also made what were said to be admissions to two prison officers and a police officer following his arrest and after he knew about the undercover operation.

The Crown said Hall thought Lyttle was ripping him off as Lyttle built a house for him but the defence said the house was progressing more or less as expected and nothing was amiss.

The defence said Hall was much more likely to have been the victim of drugdealing associates.

Justice Jill Mallon said Lyttle maintained he did not kill Hall, the best man at Lyttle’s wedding.

The judge decided financial pressure and conflict with Hall were behind Lyttle’s decision to kill Hall. She accepted he shot Hall on the spur of the moment, and put a plastic bag over his head when he did not die immediately.

But she did not accept he had dismembered the body as described during the undercover operation. It was much more likely Lyttle buried the body.