The man charged with arson and murder over the fatal Loafers Lodge fire is seen collecting cushions from around the hostel and putting them in a cupboard, where he later sets them alight.
His movements before and after the deadly blaze, captured on CCTV, have been shown to the jury at the High Court in Wellington, as the second week of his trial gets underway.
The 50-year-old, who has name suppression, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges and is pursuing the defence of insanity.
He’s accused of lighting two fires in the building where he lived that night.
The first – late on May 15, 2023 – was under a couch. Residents scrambled to put it out, using water from the kitchen. Footage of all that was played in court last week.
The second blaze was lit 90 minutes later, in the early hours of May 16.
Between the two fires, cameras captured the accused leaving the building, at 10.40pm.
When he returned, just after 11pm, he was unable to get back inside as he no longer had his access card.
In a more than an hour long compilation of security footage, showing his actions from then on, another resident was seen helping him get back into the building, and up the lift.
He was captured interacting with several others in the hostel over the next hour, including Kenneth Barnard, one of the five men killed in the blaze.
‘I can give you a sleeping bag’
Barnard was heard offering him help, then walking with the accused to the door of the building’s night manager, in an attempt to get him access back into his room.
When they were unsuccessful, Barnard asked, “So you’re going to somewhere else tonight, because you locked your keys in your room?”
“Yeah, going to see a friend,” the accused answered.
“Well, as long as you’re alright at your friend’s place till tomorrow,” the resident answered.
Barnard’s later heard asking the man, “Do you want a sleeping bag or something? I can give you a sleeping bag if you want to sleep in the lounge.”
The accused said, “I’ll sleep outside”, mentioning the smell of the burnt couch, but accepted the offer of the sleeping bag.
Barnard was then seen accompanying the man to the common area. “Come over here,” he was heard saying.
The defendant quickly made to leave, with Barnard asking him: “Where are you going?”
He repeats, “I’ll sleep outside”.
Trying to convince him to sleep inside, Barnard points to another couch next to the one that had been burnt: “This couch over here is alright.”
A man who ran into Barnard and the accused in the common area, Robert Vercoe told the court: “I sort of just asked who put the fire out, because all I saw was a big couple of pots, big pots that had been filled with water, and the couch had been sort of like tipped upside down a little bit, and then it was all burnt through the bottom.”
Final three words from victim to man accused of killing him
He listened to Barnard trying to convince the man to sleep on the couch.
“He wanted to go out on the street and I thought it was strange, but it was just the way he looked at me, which weirded me out,” Vercoe said.
As the accused and Barnard eventually parted ways, Barnard said: “All the best.”
Minutes later, the alleged arsonist and murderer is seen putting a blue blanket into the same cupboard where he’d already stuffed some cushions.
He goes away briefly, but from 12.12am he was filmed leaning into the closet, for more than a minute, before shutting the doors. It’s during this time he’s alleged to have started the fatal blaze.
Cameras captured him gathering some plastic from the kitchen, and when he returned to the hallway hosting the cupboard, it was already filled with smoke.
He dropped the plastic on the ground, and left, exiting the building at 12:21am.
Defence lawyer, Louise Sziranyi asked the officer in charge of the hostel CCTV footage about the defendant being seen muttering under his breath and talking to himself.
Detective Constable Mitchell Murdoch said: “From memory it occurs on three occasions.”
The trial continues tomorrow.
