A man accused of murdering his convicted sex offender stepfather has admitted burning down his stepfather's house.
Jamie Stewart Davies, 31, of Raglan, admitted a charge of arson at the start of his murder trial in the High Court at Hamilton yesterday.
Davies is charged with murdering his stepfather, Allan Wallace Davies, 57, whose body was found in his burned-out house in Struve St, Ngaruawahia, on September 28 last year, The Waikato Times reported.
Police arrested Davies four days later, in Tauranga.
An autopsy on Allan Davies showed he died before the fire, allegedly from injuries inflicted by the accused.
The court was told that Allan Davies was due to be sentenced in the Hamilton District Court for historic sex offending. He had earlier been found guilty of five representative charges of committing indecencies with a girl under the age of 12.
Defence counsel Paul Mabey QC, in his opening address, told the court that while Davies denied murdering Allan Davies, he did not deny killing him.
