Reddington has denied the allegations.

During the opening address on Monday defence lawyer Ian Hard told the jury the Crown’s case was circumstantial and police focused unduly on his client when they should have spent more time looking at Reddington’s older brother Tipene, who they had also been drinking with.

Hard told the jury he had good reasons for saying that and they would hear evidence tantamount to a confession from Tipene that he had killed Gill, adding Tipene had made these comments in front of three people.

Today, Mike Kilbride, who is also representing Reddington, put it to the sibling’s mother Isobel Anderson that Tipene had admitted killing Gill about a month after his death.

Kilbride suggested that during a car trip Tipene had become aggressive, threatening to kill his mother and had grabbed his sister who was in the car with them. When Anderson told him to stop abusing his sister, he allegedly struck her in the face with a wheel brace.

McBride then put it to Anderson that as they approached a bridge outside Carterton, Tipene said:

“This is where I killed Jamie, I told Wire we should have chucked him off the bridge, but no our stupid arse brother had to drag him to the paddock. I ****** told him I’d finish it off because he didn’t have the balls to.”

Anderson told the court she didn’t remember Tipene saying that but admitted she didn’t remember anything after being struck in the face.

The day of the death

Gill had spent the hours before his death drinking vodka pre-mixes and smoking cannabis and methamphetamine with the Reddington brothers.

Gill had previously lived with Anderson for a period of time. She described him as a gentle person and liked having him stay as he was clean, kept his room clean, was always helpful and would help cook dinner.

She said Gill referred to her as his “Māori mum” and the two got on well talking about conspiracy theories and aliens.

She wasn’t sure exactly what day Gill had arrived at their house in June 2023, but said she didn’t recognise him because his hair was long, he had holes in his shoes and he was really scruffy, “like a homeless fella”.

She told the court, Reddington was “really strange” that day. She demonstrated how he was twitching and how he and Gill were whispering to each other.

“He was doing really weird things and I just said, ‘what are you on mate?’”

The next day when she saw a body lying face down in the paddock she thought it was Reddington and called to Tipene. He came out and told her his brother was in the sleepout.

She said Tipene then yelled at his younger brother “to come outside and face up to what you’ve done bro”.

Earlier in the day the court heard from landlord Jeanette Lindsay who’d found Gill’s body when she’d come to the property to collect hay from the shed near the gate on Sunday morning.

She said Tipene was woken by the commotion and came down the drive towards where Gill’s body was lying and told his mother Wire was asleep in the sleepout.

However, she recalled Tipene saying “you deserve to be dead” but couldn’t say why.

She told the court Tipene was angry, his eyes were bulging and he was screaming.

Anderson denied her son said “you deserve to be dead”, but she agreed he was angry that morning.

Asked about his behaviour in the car and whether it was out of character, Anderson explained Tipene could be violent when affected by drugs and alcohol and it reminded her of his father.

She said Tipene had beaten her before and described an incident not long before the killing where she’d locked herself in the bathroom because he was “smacking up my garage”.

She’d called the police and had taken a protection order out against him. She said he was now at a drug rehab facility in Auckland.

At the end of her evidence, Anderson looked over to Gill’s family and said she was sorry.

“This is a hurtful time for all of us. I Ioved your son,” before blowing Reddington a kiss as she left the courtroom.

The trial before Justice Jason McHerron is expected to take three weeks.

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media advisor at the Ministry of Justice.