Everyone will know you are a thief, accused told teen burglar
Paramedics walked into the kitchen of a King Country home and found their patient face down in a pool of blood, showing no signs of life.
‘‘I thought he was dead,’’ St John paramedic Jane Murray told a jury at the High Court in Hamilton.
She reported the homeowner saying ‘‘that will teach you’’ to the boy, and that everyone would know he was a thief, and a police officer saw him taking photos of the boy on the floor.
Paramedics had been called to the Piopio home of William (Bill) Bruce Burr, who is on trial with his son, Shaun Bruce Burr, before a jury and Justice Grant Powell.
Each man is charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and wounding with intent to injure, maiming with intent to injure, and maiming with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
William Burr was also charged with assaulting a female and assaulting with intent to injure.
Both men are arguing self-defence. The teenage intruder, who was 17 at the time, was held at gunpoint, beaten and had his finger cut off after trying to break into William Burr’s house to steal a car for the fourth time.
Murray, the paramedic, told Crown prosecutor Rebecca Mann the boy had lost a ‘‘massive amount of blood’’ and she couldn’t see the rise and fall of his chest.
‘‘I asked my colleague if he was breathing,’’ she said.
There was a large laceration to his head, and she initially thought his skull was fractured.
He also had a large laceration down his leg. ‘‘It was quite a long one, and was a very straight cut, which surprised me at the time,’’ Murray said.
His finger had been hanging on by a piece of skin, but was no longer bleeding.
‘‘It was a clean cut right across.’’ Murray said the teenager was deemed status two, which meant his injuries were life-threatening. A rescue helicopter was called.
She said William Burr had been yelling and swearing.
He said he ‘‘wanted some f ...... Nurofen and that he was the f ...... homeowner’’.
Murray said William Burr told the boy, ‘‘that will teach you. Everyone is going to know that you are a thief’’.
‘‘He was indicating he cut the finger as proof that the patient was a thief, to let everyone know.
‘‘Implying that’s what they do overseas,’’ she said.
‘‘I asked police to remove him. I also asked the young police officer, that if this ended up being a murder investigation everyone was contaminating the scene.’’
St John ambulance officer JanMaree Pool said blood was splattered on the wall, and on the cupboards.
The pool of blood around the boy’s head was about 1 metre in diameter. ‘‘He showed no signs of life.’’
She was told the teenager had been unconscious for about an hour.
She described William Burr as ‘‘pissed off’’. ‘‘He was pretty grumpy, pretty rarked up.’’
She said William Burr said ‘‘We were being too PC [politically correct] and we were dealing with black people and should be dealing with him.’’
Pool said she was going between the kitchen and the ambulance for supplies, and witnessed William Burr pacing back and forth.
On one occasion, he would not move to let her through a doorway, and a police officer had to intervene.
The sole officer in Piopio, constable Tony Schrafft, had received a call from police and was putting his boots on when William Burr called.
He said it sounded like William Burr was hyperventilating. He was breathing loudly and heavily, and sounded panicked.
When he arrived at the scene, he said William Burr ‘‘blurted’’ information at him. ‘‘He thought he almost died.’’
Schrafft said it was stuff like, ‘‘They got me in my bed, I almost died’’.
The first thing Schrafft asked William Burr was, ‘‘where is the gun?’’
Shaun Burr had taken the gun and put it over the back fence, and Schrafft arranged for him to return it.
The gun was a pump action shotgun, and had been loaded with five cartridges. It was emptied and secured.
When Constable Zoe McNally arrived at the scene, she entered the house and immediately checked on the teenager on the floor.
She asked him who he was, and if he understood, but he did not respond.
William Burr was sitting at the dining table behind her and said ‘‘That’s how you do it. You won’t be f…… doing that again’’ to the boy.
Then, he stood up and stomped on the boy’s lower back. The boy did not react or make a sound.
She said it was with about 80% of his full force, and he used the kitchen counter to steady himself.
Not long after, William Burr walked towards the teenager and stood over him with a wide stance, arms crossed, and smirking. He took photos of the boy on the floor.
Constable Matthew Kay tried to intervene and escort William Burr away, but was told ‘‘to get a real job’’.
The trial continues.