Murder-accused admits driving car

A 20-year-old man accused of the murder of an Invercargill teenager admitted in court to driving the car to a stadium where the attack happened.

Jack McAllister, 19, was lured near the ILT Stadium Southland on the promise of sex from defendant Laura Scheepers on June 8, 2017.

McAllister was stabbed 14 times and died early the next morning in Southland Hospital.

David Wilson, Christopher Brown, Laura Scheppers, Natasha Ruffell and a 24-year-old with name suppression are on trial for murder.

Two people have already pleaded guilty to murder charges.

Wilson’s police recorded interview with Detective Sergeant David Kennelly on June 8, 2017, was played to the High Court in Invercargill yesterday.

During the course of the interview Wilson initially told Kennelly he did not know what the group was planning.

‘‘They kept it pretty hush.’’ However, he admitted he thought the assault on McAllister was going to be ‘‘just a few punches to the head or body’’.

‘‘I didn’t actually think it was gonna turn out the way it did.’’

He said he never saw knives taken to the stadium, and that a man, who has name suppression, drove a group to the stadium.

Ruffell owned the car, but was at home with her two young children at her Ettrick St property while the others left in her car.

Although initially telling the Detective Sergeant someone else drove to the stadium, under further questioning he admitted Ruffell had given him the keys and told him to drive her car.

Wilson also admitted he had heard Whiting-Roff saying he was going to kill McAllister, but he ‘‘did not think anything of it’’.

‘‘There had been a lot of people on Facebook saying they were gonna kill him as well . . . there is a lot of people in Invercargill that do talk like that and don’t do anything.’’

The decision for Wilson to drive had been ‘‘last minute’’, he said.

‘‘All I know was that they were gonna go round there . . . I think it was a like a punch up or something . . . and they were gonna sort him right or something, but I didn’t think that they were gonna bring weapons into it.’’

During the attack, he said to Whiting-Roff ‘‘that’s enough’’, he said.

‘‘I didn’t actually think it was gonna turn out the way it did.’’ Murder accused David Wilson