A now 14-year-old is on trial before the High Court at Dunedin accused of the murder of 16-year-old Enere Taana-McLaren following an incident in May last year.
The defendant has pleaded not guilty on the basis of self-defence and yesterday told the court he was swinging a knife “wildly” at the victim in a bid to drive him away rather than to harm him.
Justice Rob Osborne informed the jury that the evidence of two witnesses called by the defence this morning did not involve the defendant, but was an attempt to show Enere had a propensity to act violently.
The first witness, a man in his 60s who was granted name suppression, said he was waiting for a bus in January 2024 when he saw the teen walking along the footpath with a young woman.
When he heard Enere tell her to “f... off” he told him he should be more respectful towards women.
“He got aggressive and walked up to me, getting so close there was about 30cm between us,” the witness told the jury.
The man said Enere struck him in the face with his headphones, hitting him in a wound in which he had recently had stitches.
He described the teen walking away, aiming further abuse at the woman.
The witness said he was “in shock and some pain” and a friend went to alert police to the assault.
He told officers he did not want Enere prosecuted, only to get help for his anger.
The court heard he later received an apology letter.
The second witness, whose name was also suppressed, said he was waiting for a taxi by the police station in the bus hub in the early hours of the morning in February last year when he saw Enere across the road.
They knew each other from attending several parties and in a statement to police, the man said he found the victim normally “approachable and friendly”.
But on this occasion, he said Enere responded to his greeting with a “f... you”.
“I responded ‘f... you too’,” the witness said.
He told the jury he returned to a phone call he was making and rose when the teenager crossed the road towards him.
“I was halfway through standing up to greet him and he punched me in the mouth,” the witness said.
After restraining Enere, he said he was in the taxi when he realised his front tooth had been knocked out.
The damage to another tooth meant he later needed a root canal, he told the court.
Justice Osborne told jurors they first needed to make an assessment as to the reliability of the evidence given by the two witnesses before deciding how much weight to afford it.
Even if it proved Enere had a tendency to engage in violent behaviour in the bus hub, jurors should not “leap to the conclusion” that he had confronted the defendant in the same way in May.
It was simply part of the overall body of evidence, the judge said, and the jury’s task remained the same: to decide whether the Crown had proven the charge of murder.
The trial continues.
