Attackers bragged after fatal assault, accused says

Two people who assaulted murder victim Jack McAllister were trying to talk themselves up and show off after leaving the scene of the crime, a High Court jury has heard.

The remainder of Laura Scheepers’ recorded interview with police was played before the jury in Invercargill yesterday.

Scheepers, David Wilson, Christopher Brown, Natasha Ruffell and a 24-year-old with name suppression are on trial for McAllister’s murder.

Two other people, Brayden WhitingRoff and a teen with name suppression, have already pleaded guilty to murder.

McAllister, 19, was lured to near the ILT Stadium Southland on the promise of sex from Scheepers on June 7, 2017.

After McAllister arrived at the stadium he was stabbed 14 times and died early the next morning in Southland Hospital.

When in the car after leaving the scene of the stabbing, it was almost as if the teen with name suppression and Whiting-Roff were talking themselves up, she said.

The teen was saying how hard she had punched McAllister and that it made a noise and that she broke his nose, Scheepers said.

Whiting-Roff had said he had stabbed him a few times, she said.

Scheepers had been shocked and ‘‘didn’t want that to happen at all’’.

Scheepers said she only saw the teen and Whiting-Roff assault McAllister.

She agreed she had lured McAllister to the stadium so he could get a beating, but said she did not want him to get seriously injured.

She said she wanted McAllister to have a few bruises as a reminder and deterrence, because she felt that he was getting away with hurting a lot of people and she wanted him to hurt the way he hurt others.

She denied telling Christopher Brown to beat up McAllister.

‘‘I told him that Jack needs to get hurt , ah, I never said who by."

While at the stadium she had not seen McAllister get stabbed, she said.

The teen was punching McAllister in the torso and head and it looked like Whiting-Roff was also punching McAllister, she said.

Whiting-Roff looked like he was in a ‘‘serious anger state’’, but she never saw him stab McAllister.

Scheepers said she was crying and her face was buried in Brown’s chest. ‘‘I was trying not to look." During the ordeal McAllister was saying things like, ‘Stop, I haven’t hurt anyone,’ Scheepers said.

He was referring to Whiting-Roff and the female teen when asking them to stop, she said.

Whiting-Roff was saying to McAllister something along the lines of, ‘‘why do you think it’s OK to hurt, um, young girls’ or ‘why do you think it’s OK to hurt people."

The female teen punching McAllister was saying things like: ‘‘Face me, face it like a man, what are you, why would you hurt someone’’, Scheepers said.

Late in the police interview, Scheepers denied she was among four people who had a ‘‘fair understanding’’ they were planning to hurt McAllister after they left the Subway restaurant earlier in the evening.

‘‘If that wasn’t the case why did you bother to lure him if there was no plan,’’ Sergeant Fred Shandley asked.

‘‘Um, honestly, just to be with ... Jack, um, just to hang out, um, despite him hurting me I still wanted attention from someone and I knew he would give it to me."