A Dunedin teenager's fatal stabbing of another schoolboy was a case of self-defence – a “David-and-Goliath situation” - his lawyer says.
The now 14-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 16-year-old Enere Taana-McLaren and has spent the last two weeks on trial in the High Court at Dunedin following the incident at the bus hub on May 23 last year.
Justice Rob Osborne summed up the case this afternoon and the jury has retired.
Earlier, Anne Stevens KC said her client was planning to transfer buses that day and had just moments to disembark the number 44 and board a second bus to Macandrew Bay.
“That didn’t happen because Enere intervened. Enere’s anger intervened. Enere confronted [the defendant] from the moment he stepped off that bus,” she said.
“It was as though a fuse had been lit in Enere . . . he meant trouble for this little boy.”
The court previously heard the victim made a derogatory comment about the defendant’s clothing and called him “b.... boy”.
CCTV showed the younger of the two walking north in Great King St away from Enere who remained at his bus stop, aiming further verbal abuse.
The defendant turned around and walked back towards the victim who met him on the footpath, adopting an aggressive stance.
Mrs Stevens emphasised the fact her client initially took five or six steps backwards.
“You don’t do that if you’re the aggressor, do you? You do that if you’re scared,” she said.
“Enere knows he is taller, bigger, older; he’s got a distinct advantage. [The defendant] was a little boy in comparison – this is a lightweight versus a heavyweight.
“It was a David-and-Goliath situation. David did not have a slingshot, he had a knife.”
Mrs Stevens pointed to the evidence of “star witness”, bus driver Christopher Kitto, who had an uninterrupted view of events as they unfolded.
He described Enere as shouting at the younger boy, who he said seemed reluctant to engage.
It was Enere too, the witness said, who demanded the defendant pull out the knife from his bag.
“[The defendant] believes Enere is going to give him the bash,” Mrs Stevens said.
“He is the one who had to make the decision how best to survive this attack by a complete stranger.”
It was 15 seconds from when the knife was withdrawn to the defendant being pulled away from Enere.
Mrs Stevens suggested to the jury the pair were “fully engaged” in a fight and her client was not following the victim.
When the incident spilled onto the road, Enere can be seen on CCTV aiming a kick at the teen’s head as he retreated.
The defendant swiped with the knife once and missed but the second attempt proved fatal.
Mrs Stevens underscored for the jury the age of her client - “a child in law and fact”.
“That’s why we roll our eyes at teenage behaviour . . . They do not think of consequences, they act on impulse – it's not their fault, it’s biology,” she said.
“[Teens] make decisions based on emotions, on fear, on terror.”
She stressed the overwhelming influence on the defendant of being the victim of a robbery in August 2023, which resulted in him later being diagnosed with PTSD.
Clinicians also found the teen had ADHD and Mrs Stevens said the combination of those disorders, along with his age, made him especially susceptible to impulsivity and more sensitive to potential threats.
“Don't get side-tracked by the Crown’s attempts to belittle the effects of the robbery,” she warned jurors.
“The threat Enere posed to [the defendant] he saw through the lens of that trauma.”
The court also heard evidence last week from two people who were assaulted by Enere at the bus hub in the months preceding his death.
The defendant had never met him before and had no idea about his past when they met in May, Mrs Stevens accepted.
But it was important evidence because it showed her client had read the victim correctly.
“It bolsters [the defendant’s] credibility in that he thought Enere meant violence towards him,” she said.
Mrs Stevens told the jury to resist the urge to find the defendant guilty of something simply because of the tragic consequences.
Finding he acted in self-defence was not absolving him, she argued.
“[The defendant] does and probably will always feel the burden of and responsibility for Enere’s death,” she said.
'That’s murder': Crown rejects bus hub stabber self-defence claim
A Dunedin teenager who stabbed a schoolboy to death was “up for a fight” and not acting in self-defence, the Crown said.
The pair clashed in the bus hub on May 23 and Crown prosecutor Richard Smith told jurors during his closing address this morning that they only need view the CCTV footage to dismiss the defence case.
The defendant was captured walking past Enere, who was standing at a bus stop, and briefly turning back after the victim made a comment about his clothing.
Mr Smith said the footage clearly showed the defendant had walked past the victim but backtracked up to 20m to confront him.
“In real terms that’s what kicked off the physical confrontation," the prosecutor said.
“If he was actually frightened of Enere, actually scared he was going to get the bash . . . then he didn’t need to go back. He could’ve just kept walking.
"He could’ve gone into the police station. What the Crown says is that [the defendant] was up for a fight."
After initially stepping backwards when Enere adopted a fighting stance, the defendant can be seeing pulling out the knife and advancing on the Trinity College student, who immediately retreats.
“No fear, no hesitation, just straight on the attack,” Mr Smith said.
Moving backward, the victim aimed a kick at the teen’s head as the fight spilled onto the road.
The defendant missed once with the knife before a second effort caused the fatal wound.
The teen told forensic psychiatrist Maxwell Pankhurst that Enere was “big, but not that big. I thought I could fight him”.
He said he felt compelled to square up to the older boy because he did not want to want to appear to back down, adhering to the “gangster persona” he had adopted after being the victim of a violent robbery nine months earlier.
“He’s not acting in self-defence. Self-defence has no place at all in this trial,” Mr Smith said.
“Self-defence is about using reasonable force to defend yourself. It’s not about deciding to fight someone because they insulted you. It’s not about wanting to fight someone so you don’t appear a coward.”
Earlier in the trial, the defendant steadfastly denied chasing Enere, only trying to “drive him back”.
Mr Smith said the phrase, which was used repeatedly, had only been adopted by the teen in conversations with a psychiatrist three weeks before the trial started.
The prosecutor also rubbished the defendant’s claims that he was preparing to take off his shoulder bag (containing the knife) in preparation for a fist fight.
“All he did was to move it from his rear hip to the front and immediately start trying to access his knife – you can watch it,” Mr Smith said.
The trial heard much evidence about an attack on the defendant in August 2023 which subsequently resulted him being diagnosed with PTSD.
Mr Smith suggested the jury look at the teenager’s four differing accounts of the incident to scrutinise his credibility.
It was significant, the prosecutor said, that when speaking to Dr Pankhurst, the defendant “totally inflates and exaggerates” the events.
“[He] wants to display this as seriously as he can to explain maybe even justify carrying a knife,” Mr Smith said.
He told the jury it was symptomatic of the defendant’s approach.
“His explanations are all over the place. There’s no consistency in any of it.
"Why is that? He’s making up a story to try and fit all this incriminating evidence.”
The defendant told the court from the witness box earlier in the trial that he had no idea such a stabbing could result in death.
Mr Smith dismissed that as “nonsense”.
He told the jury squarely to reject the defence case.
“This was never about the defendant protecting himself from physical harm . . . rather he attacked Enere.
"He chased him down, deliberately stabbed him with that knife and he did so knowing full well that to do so would cause serious injury, injuries that could cause Enere’s death. Despite appreciating that, he continued,” he said.
“That’s murder.”
