21 May 2015

Blessie trial: Accused's story a lie, says Crown

7:19 pm on 21 May 2015

The Crown says the story given by the man accused of raping and murdering Blessie Gotingco is a lie.

The 28-year-old with name suppression is on trial at the High Court in Auckland.

In his closing address, the Crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery said the accused told the court he was looking for drugs when he ran over Mrs Gotingco by accident in May last year.

But GPS information from the accused's bracelet shows he visited two cemeteries just hours before hitting Mrs Gotingco.

Mr Raftery said the accused was looking for a place to dump a body.

He said one witness heard a scream from the road, indicating Mrs Gotingco was alive and not unresponsive as the accused suggested.

Mr Raftery said the accused repeatedly stabbed his victim to stop her ever telling anyone what happened.

"Those wounds were inflicted in order to finish her off so she could never speak out against him again, but the wounds themselves and the semen inside her are the only voice she's got in this trial and they tell you everything about what he did to her."

The accused has today re-hired his legal team, led by Chris Wilkinson-Smith, after firing his lawyers on the second day of the trial.

He had been defending himself in the High Court in Auckland.

The trial, now in its fourth week, has heard from more than 40 witnesses. The jury will hear the judge's summing up tomorrow before retiring to consider their verdicts.

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