Elderly teacher's brutal murder outlined

After a night out partying, drunk 23-year-old Whetu Te Hiko was walking home to his caravan in a Tokoroa camping ground when he ended the life of respected primary school teacher Lois Dear, bashing and suffocating the 66 year old.

Details of the random murder became public today after Te Hiko pleaded guilty in the High Court at Rotorua and Justice John Wild lifted suppression orders on the depositions evidence.

Seeing a car pull up and park in the grounds of Strathmore Primary School on the morning of Sunday July 16 last year – the day before the new term was to start – Te Hiko tried the doors to the vehicle. But they were locked and, as he dithered about, Mrs Dear came out of her classroom.

"She screamed. She said she was going to call the cops," Te Hiko said according to the transcript of a videotaped interview with police eight days after the killing. Initially, he had doggedly maintained he had nothing to do with the killing.

"I quickly ran toward the door, told her to calm down, don't need to call the cops, ah I'll just go home," he said.

"Drunk, wasted" and scared of going to jail, he overpowered the struggling woman who was trying to scratch him.

"I put her to the floor and then her shoes came off.

"She was still struggling and I grabbed her by the hair, told her to shush and she didn't be quiet. I said I don't wanna hurt you. I just want your car."

Mrs Dear kept screaming. Te Hiko said he thought he must have put her jersey over her face and then held it there.

"She just stopped breathing and that was not supposed to happen."

He told the police interviewer how he then took off his tee shirt and shoes, walked into the toilets and wet his shirt before going back to the classroom and wiping everything down to try and avoid being traced to the crime scene.

"I didn't want to kill her, didn't have any intention," he said, often mumbling and stumbling over answers to questions.

"I used so much force that she just knocked out. If I remember correctly, I gave one kick to her head, yeah, one kick, just one."

He tried to cover the body with a plastic cloth from a little table in the classroom and took Mrs Dear's car keys from her desk.

"I do remember saying sorry to her when I left. I did, I said sorry I didn't mean to kill you. I didn't want to."

Te Hiko told the interviewing detective that he panicked when the teacher was going to ring the police and then kept screaming.

When he abandoned her car later, he intended to "blow it up" to destroy evidence, but "I couldn't get the lighter going."

Te Hiko was arraigned when he appeared in court today, after having undergone a psychiatric assessment to determine if he was fit to stand trial.

Boyish-looking, he hung his head for most of his brief appearance in the dock.

The only time Te Hiko looked up at the judge was when he was asked to enter a plea to the murder charge.

"Guilty," he said quietly, then his chin sank toward his chest again.

While family members and friends of Mrs Dear welcomed the fact that there would be no need for a trial, two supporters of Te Hiko -believed to be a sister and brother who had sat quietly in the public gallery of the courtroom – hurried away afterward, declining to comment to reporters.

Te Hiko was convicted of murder and remanded in custody for sentencing on May 4.

The coronial autopsy report released today found that Lois Dear was smothered by force. She suffered head injuries, a broken nose, extensive bruising and lacerations to the face, black eyes, fractured ribs and bruises to her hands.

Pathologist Lloyd Denmark from Auckland Hospital said the pattern of injury was consistent with blows from a fist to the face. Asphyxiation was due to closure of the mouth and nose (smothering), by forcible pressure.

There is a photo of the killer at this link.