Murdered Korean backpacker’s body found

By GILES BROWN - The Press | Wednesday, 15 October 2008

JAE HYEON KIM: Disappeared five years ago.

Police have found the body of missing South Korean backpacker Jae Hyeon Kim at a remote spot on the West Coast.

The announcement was made during a depositions hearing at the Greymouth District Court regarding the murder of Jae Hyeon Kim.

Investigation head Detective Inspector John Winter said police hoped to recover Mr Kim’s body in the Four Mile River area near Charleston today.

It is understood the body has now been found.

Kim, a 25-year-old South Korean backpacker, disappeared in 2003 and a man yesterday pleaded guilty to murdering him and mutilating his body.

A 31-year-old pleaded guilty to the murder at a depositions hearing in the Greymouth District Court and is due to be sentenced in Wellington on December 5.

A third man on Monday admitted there is a prima facie case against him, but the charge and other details against him have been suppressed.

NAZI BELIEFS

Yesterday the depositions hearing for Shannon Brent Flewellen, 29, also heard from witnesses that he believed in the supremacy of the Aryan race and used to discuss Adolf Hitler and World War 2.

Flewellen is jointly charged with the murder, along with the 31-year-old man whose name is suppressed.

On Monday, Crown prosecutor Chris Lange alleged that Flewellen and the other man picked up Kim, 25, on the road from Westport to Greymouth between September 29 and October 22, 2003.

Lange said they stopped the car near the township of Four Mile Bridge and pretended it needed a push to get it going. As the economics student pushed, Flewellen allegedly had put him in a choker hold from behind and strangled him while his accomplice held his arms.

Yesterday, the court heard from two former associates of Flewellen.

One said Flewellen had told her how he and the co-accused had picked up an Asian man on a West Coast road and killed him in 2003.

Flewellen allegedly said he placed his boot across the man’s throat and cut off his head with a spade.

“He was relaxed, like he was telling us he had changed his socks or something,” she said.

The witness also said a backpack and a pair of tramping boots had been kept in a shed belonging to Flewellen. He had told her they belonged to the Asian man they killed. She also recalled seeing Flewellen burning clothing and documents which he told her had belonged to the same man. At the time she had been too scared to tell the police and had not wanted to believe Flewellen, whom she described as a “spinner”.

“You just didn’t know what to believe from Shannon. He talked crap,” she said.

A second witness said she had noticed a change in the way Flewellen presented himself during 2003.

He had “cut his hair down to the skin”, changed a tattoo on his body and shaved his eyebrows. They had discussed skinhead music and books.

When asked what aspects were discussed, the witness said: “You know, Hitler, the war.”

This involved a “belief in the Aryan race and keeping things pure”.

She said Flewellen mentioned the man they killed was due to leave New Zealand at the end of the year.

Kim’s visa was due to expire in December 2003.

A 40-year-old Otara man has appeared in the Manukau District Court facing two charges of injuring with intent to injure.

The charges relate to a brawl outside the man’s liquor store on Tuesday night after a group of five youths entered the shop.

ONE News caught the aftermath of the brawl that left a teenager with serious injuries and the liquor store owner and his nephew in hospital with stab wounds.

But it is Indian shopkeeper Varinder Singh Bains who has appeared in court.

“If someone comes at you with a knife, what are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to stand there and die?” says his wife, Gagandeep Kaur.

Singh told ONE News he only used the hockey stick to chase the teens away but police allege he did much more than that to two of them.

“One of them received reasonably serious facial injuries,” Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini says.

“He’s had damage to his teeth and sustained swelling to his nose and mouth area, and the other one has bruises on his back and shoulders.”

Singh’s wife says he was acting in self defence against the group she claims were drunk and aggressive.

“We’re not going to stand back, we’re going to fight [until] the end,” she says.

“You know, it doesn’t matter if it’s the police or the public who thinks it’s wrong. I think whatever we did was good.”

And that view is backed by gun shop owner, Ray Carvell, whose son Greg was initially charged after shooting an intruder armed with a machete.

Pizzini says the law allows shop owners to use reasonable force to defend themselves, others or their property.

However, he says those that clearly exceed that force can expect to be arrested and held accountable before the criminal courts.

Police say it is likely a 15-year-old involved in the brawl will also be charged.

The 28 year-old was last seen walking back to the house on Hampshire Street where she lived with her grandfather, on September 25th.

Detective Richard Quested who has been in charge of the scene says police have taken several items for forensic examination, although he’s not saying what they were.

He says there’s nothing to suggest anything untoward happened there and is urging anyone who knows Tisha Lowry, or who was in the Aranui the day she went missing, to contact police immediately.

The stabbing happened on the day police told retailers to use common sense when defending themselves after a 40-year-old man stabbed in a fight outside his liquor store was himself arrested.

Inspector Kay Lane, of police northern communications, says a man entered the Lotto shop in New Windsor Road, Avondale, about 5.20pm on Friday and attacked the shopkeeper.

“He approached the male shopkeeper and stabbed him several times in the upper body area,” she says.

“The victim has been taken to Auckland Hospital with serious injuries.”

Shanti Lal told Newstalk ZB the victim was his 55-year-old brother.

Lal says his brother was stabbed in the neck and back. Police found a man and arrested him a short distance from the scene.

A woman in a next-door takeaway bar has told NZPA the stabbed man staggered into the shop and they phoned 111.

His alleged attacker, a teenaged Polynesian boy, stood outside and waited until police arrived and took him into custody.

Meanwhile, Varinder Singh has appeared in Manukau District Court facing two charges of injuring with intent to injure following the altercation outside his Gilbert Rd liquor store in Otara on Tuesday night.

Singh, 40, was remanded on bail. Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini says the charges relate to separate victims, and that weapons were used in both alleged assaults.

A 15-year-old youth is also expected to face charges over the incident. Pizzini will not rule out other arrests.

“The arrest serves as a reminder to all who take the law into their own hands in some circumstances (it) cannot be justified,” Pizzini told a media conference.

“The law states that reasonable force and reasonable steps for shop owners in defending themselves, any other persons or their property is acceptable.

“Those that clearly exceed that force can expect to be arrested and held accountable before the criminal courts … people need to use their common sense.”

He says shop owners who fear for their safety “need to get on the phone, dial 111 and the police will respond and deal with it”.

‘We did the right thing - we didn’t want to die’

By TAMMY BUCKLEY - Sunday News | Sunday, 05 October 2008

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The wife of the liquor store owner arrested after a fight with several youths outside his south Auckland business has slammed as “ridiculous” the police decision to charge her husband with two counts of injuring with intent.

“It’s a really dumb idea to charge someone who is defending property or themselves,” Gagandeer Kaur told Sunday News.

“We don’t care what the police are saying we did the right thing. We (were) just protecting ourselves, we don’t want to die.”

Kaur’s husband, Virender Singh, was stabbed in the leg in the Tuesday incident at his Gilbert Rd, Otara, discount liquor store.

His charges relate to injuries to two of the youths allegedly received, one of whom claims he had a swollen nose, mouth and damage to his teeth.

Police say a 15-year-old is also expected to be charged.

Singh, 40, appeared at Manukau District Court on Friday. He entered no plea and was remanded on bail.

Outside the court, he told Sunday News he was feeling “really embarrassed” about being charged.

But asked if he still thought he acted correctly, Singh said: “I did (the) right thing.”

Earlier in the week, Singh told another newspaper he would fight charges as he was only defending himself after an intoxicated youth who he believed was shoplifting entered his store.

Mother-of-three Kaur said her husband had only a few seconds to think how to react in the incident.

“You don’t have time to think about law and order, you just have to protect yourself,” she said.

Kaur said she and her husband had been moved by the plight of Manurewa liquor store owner Navtej Singh, shot and killed in a robbery in June.

“He never defended himself … and he still died. We need to stand on our feet,” she said.

Kaur said her husband had received lots of support from the public and offers from lawyers offering to take on the case.

Sensible Sentencing Trust boss Garth McVicar said: “If people hesitate when confronted with a potential burglar, robbery or assault, then that could cost them their lives. The public must have the right to defend their castle.”

But Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Pizzini said Singh’s arrest and subsequent charging should serve as a reminder for people to use common sense in such situations.

“The law states that reasonable force and reasonable steps for shop owners in defending themselves, any other persons, or their property is acceptable,” Pizzini said.

“Those that clearly exceed that force can expect to be arrested and held accountable before the criminal courts … people need to use their commonsense.”

Meanwhile, west Auckland Lotto shop owner Shashikant Prema is in a stable condition in Auckland Hospital after being stabbed on Friday night.

Inspector Kay Lane said a man entered the shop in New Windsor Rd, Avondale, and attacked the 55-year-old. The alleged offender was arrested shortly after.