The 13-year-old who killed Dunedin student Enere Taana-McLaren attacked the 16-year-old with a knife did it because he didn’t want to look like a coward, the High Court has heard.
In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Richard Smith told the jury the now 14-year-old was not trying to defend himself from Taana-McLaren, but instead – as he later told a psychiatrist – he did not want to be a “sackless c***”.
The 14-year-old is accused of murdering Enere during a confrontation between the teenagers at Dunedin’s central city bus hub last May.
The defence told the court he was a scared boy who was defending himself against a bigger, older boy after being assaulted and robbed close to a year before.
Smith said that did not square with what he later told the psychiatrist.
The defendant chose to confront the older boy after being verbally accosted, he chose to bring out the knife before chasing the retreating teenager onto the road, and he chose to make two swings at Enere, Smith told the jury.
The second was a “full-force” blow, which stabbed through Enere’s stomach to the muscles near his spine, he said.
“It’s not self defence – it’s murder.”
A witness heard the young teen saying “f*** off” and Enere deserved it in the aftermath of the stabbing, Smith said.
Self-defence was about protecting yourself from physical harm, not protecting your feelings from being hurt or your “gangster persona”, he said.
‘He meant trouble’
In her closing, defence lawyer Anne Stevens KC disputed that version of events.
Her client was scared when faced with an older, bigger teenager who wanted to bash him and was making derogatory remarks, she said.
“He meant trouble for this little boy.”
He was terrified and entitled to defend himself, Stevens said.
“We do not have to be a door mat, we do not have to be a punching bag.”
The young teen had PTSD and was hypersensitive to threats from an earlier assault, she said.
Enere was being aggressive towards the smaller boy, appearing threatening and calling for a fight, despite the defendant not being aggressive, she said.
Her client was carrying the knife to make himself feel safer after the assault, but did not intend to use it and was only pulling it out at the bus hub to drive the older boy away after failing to deter him by flashing it.
“I wanted to scare him, I didn’t want to hurt him,” Stevens said, repeating her client’s words.
“It was a David and Goliath situation,” she said.
Her client had nightmares and would always feel the burden of Enere’s death.
He broke down when he heard the news, Stevens said.
The boy’s biology also had to be be taken into account. He was a child, his brain was not fully developed and children acted on impulse.
Stevens claimed Enere had a history of bullying people at the bus hub and going for those who looked like weak targets, including knocking out someone’s front tooth.
The kitchen knife used in the stabbing sat as an exhibit in the front of the courtroom in a display case.
Smith often gestured towards it during his closing remarks.
It was “not a pocket knife”, he told the jury.
‘Not going to be disrespected’
The defendant gave varying and inconsistent accounts of the stabbing, Smith said.
His story changed as to whether he chased the older boy or was “driving him off”, as did his understanding of whether stabbing someone could kill them.
He was in an angry, hostile and volatile state after an incident at school that afternoon, messaging a friend about bashing a prefect he believed had snitched on him, Smith said.
The boy was sent home from school, where he collected the knife before going to the bus hub.
He also inflated a prior assault – giving at least four different, potentially misleading accounts – to portray the attack in a park nearly a year earlier as seriously as he could so he could justify carrying a weapon, Smith said.
“He was not going to be disrespected – even if it meant carrying a knife.”
Smith also argued the teen’s claim he had no appreciation of the damage a knife could inflict was ridiculous, as it was the very reason he carried a dangerous weapon.
The defendant had flashed the knife at another boy at the bus hub about a month before the stabbing, Smith said.
Stevens said adults, schools and police failed to keep her client safe from bullies in the years prior to the fatal attack.
His accounts varied because he was traumatised and had PTSD after being assaulted and robbed the year prior.
He suffered anxiety, flashbacks and depression, Stevens said.
During the trial, graphic CCTV showed the 60 seconds from when the defendant got off the bus to security intervening and Enere backing away while clutching his side.
Justice Robert Osborne will sum up the case this afternoon before the jury retires to consider its verdict.
rnz.co.nz
