WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Although four other people were present on the morning that 17-year-old Dimetrius “Precious” Pairama was beaten, tortured and forced to hang herself, there was one clear ringleader acting so “unhinged” that the others feared for their own safety if they didn’t follow her lead.

That was the testimony today from the now-adult woman who, at the age of 14, was the youngest participant inside the derelict South Auckland home five years ago.

That ringleader, she testified, wasn’t the woman currently on trial for murder. It was then-27-year-old Ashley Winter, the oldest and largest-framed person there that day, who has already been convicted by another jury of Pairama’s murder, she said.

The witness, who has permanent name suppression and immunity from prosecution, has been in the witness box since last Thursday, but most of that time has been spent either watching her previous interviews with police or answering questions from prosecutors. This morning marked the first time she was cross-examined at length by the defence.

“Ashely was a bully, wasn’t she?” defence lawyer David Niven asked the witness, describing Winter as someone who wanted the others to do her dirty work. The witness agreed.

The current defendant, who was 16 at the time of Pairama’s death, cannot yet be identified by court order. She is now 21 and has been on trial since last week.

A woman with name suppression is on trial in the High Court at Auckland, accused of having helped kidnap and murder 17-year-old Dimetrius Pairama in July 2018. Photo / Michael Craig

Police found Pairama’s body inside a rusty steel drum in the overgrown backyard of a Māngere state home in July 2018.

Police began searching the area after responding to a fight at a McDonald’s in central Auckland where the witness, the defendant and one other girl were fighting with Winter, accusing her of killing their friend. The witness said she had had enough with Winter after she started “praising herself about what had just happened”.

But even with the fight outside the restaurant being three-on-one, Winter was holding her own, she said.

During a series of interviews with police in the weeks that followed the killing, the 14-year-old admitted that she was present as Pairama was repeatedly punched and stomped, forced to disrobe and tied naked to a chair with soiled underwear stuffed into her mouth, burned on sensitive areas of her body with a makeshift blowtorch, had Janola poured in her eyes and was ultimately forced to choose the method of her murder: via hanging or stabbing.

Prosecutors have Winter and the defendant had different motives for the killing. Winter, an associate of the Mongrel Mob, blamed Pairama - who she had never before met - of matching the description of someone who had fed Black Power members, information that resulted in Winter being attacked, the witness agreed.

The current defendant, meanwhile, was angry over “Facebook drama”, the witness previously told police. But the witness’ testimony on that point has wavered over the past three days.

Pairama denied either of the allegations from her attackers, the witness recalled.

“It’s a pretty minor thing [Facebook drama] by comparison [to Winter’s claim of a gang attack],” Niven suggested, to which the witness agreed.

“[The current defendant] didn’t have any reason to want to hurt Dimetrius, did she?” Niven also asked.

“No,” the witness said.

Ashley Winter, left, and Kerry Te Amo were both convicted in 2019 of murdering Dimetrius Pairama. Photos / NZME

While the defendant and the witness both hit Pairama at the direction of Winter, neither of their attacks were at the same level of ferocity as the beating Winter administered, the witness agreed.

“If it’s not her [who is attacked] it will be you,” the witness recalled Winter telling her and the current defendant, explaining that they feared Winter’s threats of getting gang members to come after them if they didn’t comply.

“Did Ashley give the appearance of being slightly crazy?” Niven asked.

“At times,” the witness said.

“Was that something that made you afraid of her, the idea she could lose control and do something crazy?” the lawyer continued. The witness agreed.

Niven pointed out that Winter is transgender, identifying as female but with a body frame that made her “significantly bigger and stronger” than the witness and the current defendant. The witness agreed that neither she nor the defendant would have been able to physically prevent Winter had they tried to fight her at the house.

Despite the torture, there had been no discussion about killing Pairama until Winter called a meeting in front of the victim and asked her how she wanted to die, the witness agreed. The killing had been Winter’s idea, and it was shocking, the witness agreed.

“[The current defendant] was questioning whether or not to go through with it, wasn’t she?” Niven asked.

“Correct,” the witness said.

The trial continues this afternoon before Justice Kiri Tahana and the jury.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.