{"id":595130,"date":"2026-09-09T16:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595130\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T16:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T16:12:11","slug":"rachael-eddy-murder-trial-defence-urges-jury-to-consider-self-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/595130\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachael Eddy murder trial: Defence urges jury to consider self-defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Crown\u2019s case is that Eddy murdered Kennedy by asphyxiation<\/a>, either by strangling him or sitting on him in the early hours of October 4, 2024.<\/p>\n

The trial previously heard that Eddy told a formal police interview she became angry at Kennedy when she found him masturbating in her tent. After he made a sexual comment, she sat on him from the outside of her tent.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s body was discovered on October 6 after someone Eddy confessed to went to police.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Richard Jenson closed the Crown\u2019s case today.<\/p>\n

Jenson said Eddy and Kennedy were gambling at Marble Bar the night before the death, and lost $300. The pair were heard arguing about money as they left. <\/p>\n

In the following days, Eddy told two people she strangled Kennedy because she was angry he had stolen $200 from her, Jenson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat anger didn\u2019t lead her to just sit on Mr Kennedy, but to strangle or smother him with her hands intending to kill him or knowing those actions were likely to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we reach that point \u2026 we can be sure that Miss Eddy is guilty of the murder of Ross Kennedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenson said the jury might conclude that pathological evidence could \u201chelp us be sure\u201d the fatal asphyxiation was \u201cmore than just sitting on him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jenson said Kennedy\u2019s injuries were consistent with being strangled to death.<\/p>\n

Fear explains \u2018extreme\u2019 reaction<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Bill Nabney said in his closing address that Kennedy was Eddy\u2019s \u201cbest mate\u201d and she did not intend to kill him.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe confided in him, he knew her secrets, especially about the abuse that she suffered in her life. They argued from time to time, but they mostly got on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Eddy\u2019s police interview, she described Kennedy masturbating in front of her and trying to touch her breast, Nabney said.<\/p>\n

Nabney said the judge would provide the jury with assistance for what was required for an act to be self-defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short, it\u2019s whether the force that was used by her was to defend herself in circumstances where she believed Mr Kennedy was wanting sexual activity with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nabney said Eddy lived in a tent and was not homeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in her home, and she considers that Mr Kennedy is trying to sexually assault her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nabney said she had previously suffered sexual abuse, which explained \u201cwhy she reacted in such an extreme way\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Eddy told a police officer before her formal interview she \u201csat on top of him and suffocated him\u201d because of the perceived threat.<\/p>\n

Nabney said Eddy tried to give Kennedy CPR upon discovering he was not breathing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you\u2019ve got a murderous intent, why would you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nabney referred to a pathologist\u2019s evidence of different ways Kennedy could have been killed, including smothering, traumatic asphyxia and \u201cburking\u201d \u2013 sitting on a person\u2019s chest and putting their hands over the deceased\u2019s mouth and nose.<\/p>\n

He said the pathologist could not conclude what caused Kennedy\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut one of them is chest compression and that\u2019s what Ms Eddy said she did. And I\u2019d suggest that that\u2019s what occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting on Mr Kennedy\u2019s chest until he stopped moving, thinking that he was still alive, but he\u2019d just given up, I suggest to you is what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the jury to find Eddy not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

The pathologist\u2019s evidence <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the jury heard from forensic pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha, who performed Kennedy\u2019s autopsy on October 9, 2024. <\/p>\n

Jenson asked Kesha about Kennedy\u2019s injuries.<\/p>\n

Kesha said external injuries included bruising on his face, neck, chest, arms and right thigh.<\/p>\n

An internal examination found \u201cmultiple areas of bruising\u201d on both sides of his neck in the \u201cdeeper layers of the neck muscles\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kesha said bruising was caused by \u201cblunt force impact\u201d or \u201ccompression\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kesha certified Kennedy\u2019s cause of death as strangulation, given the deeper bruising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only way you can get [that] bruising is if there was pressure applied to those structures. Because they\u2019re on the deeper levels, it means that this pressure was significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nabney asked Kesha if he had \u201creconsidered\u201d strangulation being the cause of death.<\/p>\n

Kesha confirmed he could not rule out other possible causes of death after reviewing another doctor\u2019s information employed by the defence. Traumatic asphyxia \u201cmay have played a part\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nabney said a tent pole was found under Kennedy\u2019s body and asked Kesha if the bruising on his chest and neck could be a \u201cby-product\u201d of then being sat on.<\/p>\n

Kesha responded yes.<\/p>\n

Justice Tahana is expected to sum up the case tomorrow before the jury retires to deliberate. <\/p>\n

Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Crown\u2019s case is that Eddy murdered Kennedy by asphyxiation, either by strangling him or sitting on him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1903,23788,1403,288663,12517,117858,4275,111,43,139,69,117096,58932,17703,427,1961,61,54,3552,1455],"class_list":["post-595130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abuse","tag-consider","tag-defence","tag-eddy","tag-jury","tag-mentions","tag-murder","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rachael","tag-selfdefence","tag-sexual","tag-story","tag-this","tag-to","tag-trial","tag-urges","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}