Killing accidental, ‘crazy’ defendant claims
Murder accused Sainey Marong says he was ‘‘definitely’’ insane when he strangled a Christchurch sex worker to death.
But two medical experts who assessed the 33-year-old found he was not suitable for a defence of insanity.
Marong, a Christchurch butcher originally from Gambia, told the High Court at Christchurch yesterday that he picked up
22-year-old Renee Duckmanton from the corner of Manchester and Peterborough streets on May 14,
2016.
It was initially agreed that he would pay her $100 for sex, which later changed to $300.
While in the car with Duckmanton, Marong said he was thinking about a conversation he had with another man about moving into his Hoskyns Rd, Rolleston, property.
He said he told Duckmanton he wanted to go see his friend in Rolleston, after which they would go back to his house for sex.
As they drove through Templeton, Duckmanton asked him to pull his Audi over so they could have sex.
Marong said there was a ‘‘dispute’’ after they had sex in the backseat of his car. Duckmanton wanted to return to Manchester St, but Marong wanted to visit his friend.
‘‘Prior to that I was agitated, not because of her; I couldn’t stay still for a single five minutes.’’
Marong said Duckmanton grabbed his T-shirt as he tried to climb back into the front of the car, and told him they had to return to Manchester St.
He told the court he insisted they go where they had agreed and Duckmanton began yelling at him.
‘‘That screaming, that voice, that yelling was agitating me. The only method I could use to stop it was to compress her neck.’’
A short while later everything was still. ‘‘I didn’t feel that there was any movement.’’
He said he did not mean to harm Duckmanton.
‘‘I just did it to silence her because it was agitating.’’
He realised the next morning that she was dead.
‘‘Her mouth and eyes were open. It reminds me of the animals that normally get slaughtered at my workplace. That’s how I understood she was not alive.’’
He said he left her body inside his Audi, about 50 metres from his friend’s place on Hoskyns Rd, and walked to McDonald’s in Rolleston where he was collected by a friend and taken back to his Barlow St home.
When back in Christchurch he remembered seeing a lighter in his car as he tried waking Duckmanton up.
‘‘It comes into my head [that] I will have to set her on fire. I couldn’t resist myself from doing it. It was in my head.’’
He bought petrol on his way back to Hoskyns Rd, putting it into a juice bottle.
He then swapped cars and started driving his Audi towards Ashburton.
‘‘I was gravitated to head towards State Highway [1]. I was forced to travel towards Ashburton, that was the intention.’’
He turned onto Main Rakaia Rd and pulled over, dumping Duckmanton’s body near the roadside before setting it alight.
‘‘I couldn’t resist myself. I struggled to stop it after the ignition.’’
Marong then returned to Hoskyns Rd and left his Audi at the side of the road.
He was eating dinner at a friend’s place on May 21 when he realised what he had done and began to cry.
Later yesterday, under crossexamination, Crown prosecutor Pip Currie asked Marong if he was insane when he killed Duckmanton.
He replied: ‘‘Definitely.’’