Excessive alcohol intoxication cannot be ruled out as the sole cause of death for a teenager found dead in a Christchurch park, the High Court at Christchurch was told today.
Thomas Tihema Christie, 26, and Sonny Avon Rehu, 32, both unemployed, are on trial at the Christchurch High Court for murdering and indecently assaulting 16-year-old Shaun Finnerty-Gallagher.
The teen's body was found in Upper Riccarton's Auburn Reserve in February last year.
The Crown says he was bashed and then died when he lay almost naked in the park overnight, with his airways blocked from the beating that broke his nose, or the way he was lying on his face.
Rehu's lawyer Kerry Cook, who opened his case this morning, said Rehu had consistently and vehemently denied any wrongdoing, the Christchurch Court News website reported today.
If it was possible the youth died because of excessive alcohol consumption, then Rehu was not guilty of murder.
Mr Finnerty-Gallagher's blood-alcohol level was 267mg at the post mortem examination.
Professor David Ranson told the court, via a video link from Melbourne's Monash University, he believed deaths attributable to alcohol could occur at concentrations as low as 200mg of alcohol to 100ml of blood.
Pathologists for the crown earlier gave evidence that alcohol alone could not have killed the youth.
Christie's defence counsel Margaret Sewell said her client's defence was also that alcohol was the sole cause of the youth's death.
