WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A former child witness whose testimony in 2019 helped convict two adults of murder following the torture and forced hanging of 17-year-old Dimetrius “Precious” Pairama gave significantly different testimony last week as she was brought back to court to give evidence against the third and final defendant.

The third defendant, who has name suppression, seemed “hesitant” to go along with the plan to kill Pairama, the witness told jurors in the current trial. But at the previous trial four years ago, she described the same defendant as “keen”.

Prosecutors today read back to the witness, now 19, what she said at the joint trial of Ashley Winter, who was 27 at the time of the killing, and Kerry Te Amo, who was 24. The current defendant, a now 21-year-old who was 16 at the time of Pairama’s death, did not start her own trial until last Monday.

The witness, who also has name suppression and was granted immunity in exchange for her truthful testimony at both murder trials, has been present in the High Court at Auckland since Thursday - testifying via an audio-video feed from another room so she and the defendant can’t see each other.

She was 14 when police made the grisly discovery in July 2018 of Pairama’s body inside a rusted steel drum in the overgrown backyard of an abandoned, derelict Māngere home.

The young teen admitted in a series of police interviews 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 with a makeshift blowtorch, had powder poured in her eyes and was ultimately forced to choose the method of her murder: via hanging or stabbing.

Winter and the current defendant each had different motives for the attacks; the current defendant was angry about “Facebook drama” she accused Pairama of having stirred up, the 14-year-old told police. But the now-adult witness downplayed the significance of Facebook while testifying 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

• Torture trial: Accused sheds tears for victim - then changes story
• Torture trial: 'You weren't there to see the things that I had to see'
• 'Hope you have a good life': Murder trial witness recalls slain teen's final words

“It wasn’t a big deal to [the current defendant],” she testified, suggesting that, rather than angry about Facebook, the defendant appeared “confused, like she’s trying to remember what Ashley’s talking about”.

She told jurors that Winter was the ringleader of the attacks, threatening the other participants with gang violence if they didn’t go along with it.

“To me, they looked hesitant,” the witness said of Te Amo and the current defendant. “It was their body language that gave it away.”

The witness said she hadn’t known Winter or Te Amo very well prior to the killing. But that wasn’t the case with the current defendant.

Today, prosecutors Claire Robertson read aloud multiple passages of the witness’ testimony from the previous murder trial.

“Did [the current defendant] say anything about why she was doing this to Precious?” the witness was asked in 2019.

“Like I said, it was all about Facebook - something that happened on Facebook ... that Dimetrius had said something to another girl, and it caused that girl to ask [the current defendant] for a fight,” she responded.

The witness also said at the 2019 trial that she tried to talk Te Amo and the current defendant out of helping Winter with the torture, but her words “came in through one ear and out the other”.

“I tried telling her to help me stop [the attacks], but they didn’t care,” she added at the prior trial.

Ashley Winter, left, and Kerry Te Amo were both found guilty of murdering Dimetrius Pairama. Photos / NZME

By the time a meeting was held in front of Pairama in which the victim was told to choose how she wanted to die, the current defendant was “on board” with the killing, the witness said in 2019.

“That’s when all those Facebook things came up,” she testified. “That’s when they were keen.”

The witness acknowledged today that had been her testimony in 2019.

“Can you help us understand why you described [the current defendant] and Kerry as being ‘keen’ in the first trial and you described them as being ‘hesitant’ on Friday?” Robertson asked today.

“I can’t explain,” she responded.

“Thinking back now, were they keen or hesitant?” Robertson continued.

“I can’t explain,” she said again.

Defence lawyer David Niven acknowledged to jurors at the outset of the trial that his client was present for “the catalogue of horrible things that happened to Ms Pairama” and participated in some of the torture. But he said she did not aid or encourage the murder and she was not a willing participant.

The witness’ testimony is set to resume this afternoon as the trial, before Justice Kiri Tahana, continues.

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.