NATIONAL NEWS:- New Zealander tells of struggle before fatal shot

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A New Zealand man on trial over a cold-case murder in Adelaide says he pulled the trigger after a life-and-death struggle over a shotgun and amid fears he would be killed himself.

Paul Maroroa has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Robert Sabeckis in a car park near Maslin Beach, Australia, in January 2000. In evidence to the South Australian Supreme Court on Monday, the 45-year-old said he had been ordered to deliver the shotgun to Sebeckis to clear a drug debt.

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But he said when he handed it over, Sebeckis had pointed it at him, ordering him to get into his car and pull his pants down. Amid fears he would be raped and murdered, a struggle ensued in which Maroroa eventually regained control of the weapon.

He yelled at Sabeckis: “It’s done. It’s over. Just f…ing stop”. But he said the 42-year-old continued to come at him, “gesturing like he was going to grab my throat”.

“That’s when I pulled the trigger,” Maroroa said. “Because he was going to kill me. I done everything I could up until that point to stop him. “If I didn’t pull the trigger in that instant I knew he was going to get the better of me.”

Robert Sabeckis was shot dead at a Gull Rock car park in Maslin Beach, south of Adelaide in 2000. Photo / Stuff

Opening the Crown case earlier this month, prosecutor Sandi McDonald SC told jurors paramedics found Sabeckis dead with a gaping gunshot wound to his arm and large wounds to his armpit and chest.

His pants were also pulled down and his genitals exposed, in “one final act of humiliation” inflicted by his killer. McDonald said the shooter fled the scene in the victim’s car but quickly lost control and crashed into nearby trees, causing the airbag to go off.

“That airbag ultimately provided one of the critical pieces of evidence that was to solve the mystery of who had murdered Robert Sabeckis 20 years later,” she said. But Heath Barklay SC, for Maroroa, said self-defence would be an issue in the trial.

“This case is not about whether the accused shot the deceased. He did,” Barklay said. “Where the issue is, in this case, is that the crime scene and the injuries do not paint a clear-cut case of murder as the prosecution claims it does.”

The trial was continuing.

Source: Stuff

Featured Image: Paul Beveridge Maroroa is accused of murdering Robert Sabeckis in Australia in 2000.

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