Farmer feared ‘animalistic’ teen intruder
A man accused – with his son – of cutting off the finger of an ‘‘animalistic’’ teenage intruder thought he was fighting for his life, a court has heard.
William (Bill) Bruce Burr was woken by would-be burglars in his King Country home in October 2020 and, after being hit on the head with a wine bottle, got his gun and marched the pair into the kitchen, the jury has heard.
His son Shaun Bruce Burr – who is also on trial in the High Court at Hamilton – arrived soon after, and the pair are accused of beating and cutting the finger off a teenage burglar who’d stolen from William Burr three times before.
‘‘This person is an animal. He was animalistic,’’ William Burr told the jury yesterday. ‘‘I had to keep myself from being killed.’’
William Burr’s lawyer, Philip Morgan QC, asked jurors how they would feel being confronted by a 140kg teenager with a knife, who was threatening to kill them.
He also said what mattered was not what William Burr said afterwards or his attitude. Rather, it was about the time between when Shaun Burr arrived and the first police officer arrived.
‘‘What matters is what was his [William Burr’s] state of mind and what he did in that 10-minute period.’’
Morgan told the jury ‘‘the Crown has got it all wrong’’, and said the 17-year-old who ambulance officers initially thought was unconscious told a police officer at the scene he planned to kill William Burr.
Each of the Burrs is charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and wounding with intent to
‘‘His eyes were just glazed. He was determined, vicious.’’
William Burr told the boy the keys were in the kitchen.
But, they were actually in the ensuite bathroom.
The boy told the girl to wait with William Burr while he rummaged around in the kitchen.
William Burr told the girl he would put his underwear on and help, so she left, and he grabbed the shotgun from his wardrobe.
He thought the gun was his best chance of survival.
‘‘I’d only pull the trigger if he got up and attacked me, so I was trying to stop that happening,’’ William Burr said, when Morgan asked if he would shoot.
When Shaun Burr arrived, he ran straight to his father. William Burr became emotional in court, as he remembered when they looked into each other’s eyes.
William Burr said he had only looked away from the teenagers for two seconds, but the boy had moved when he looked back.
Both men were hitting the boy and demanding he put his hands out, in efforts to get the knife. He would not.
William Burr said he grabbed a knife, passed it to Shaun Burr, and said to the boy, ‘‘if you don’t put your hand out we’ll cut your finger off’’.
Shaun Burr made a small cut on his finger as a warning, but it didn’t work, so William Burr told him to ’’cut it off’’. After the first police officer arrived he admitted being offensive, but said he was worried about Shaun Burr being blamed for what happened because he was young and fit.
So, he told everyone he did it. ‘‘I kept the story up that I cut the finger off.’’