Warning: This article contains extremely distressing details that may disturb some people.
A witness to the death of Auckland teenager Dimetrius Pairama has detailed the horrifying torture she was subjected to before she died.
Kerry Te Amo and Ashley Winter are accused of kidnapping and murdering the 17-year-old in an abandoned state house in Māngere, before dumping her body in a steel drum in July last year.
But the duo weren't the only ones at the property with Pairama - two other teens were also involved in the attack.
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A police interview with one of them was played to the Auckland High Court on Tuesday, in which the young woman told a detective she was ordered to give Pairama a "hiding".
"I just punched her on the shoulder, and then that's it," she said. "Then Ashley told me to get out."
The teenager, who has name suppression, says she then left the room while Winter continued to beat Pairama, and when she went back to check on them 10 to 15 minutes later, she saw her stomp on the 17-year-old's head.
"They were really loud, like her skull is breaking."
She told police the other teen (who also has name suppression) then joined in the attack.
"[They] punched her stomach, and just kicked her leg and [Pairama] fell to the ground… [Pairama] was crying to stop, but they wouldn't stop, they just kept going."
The witness, who has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving evidence, says Pairama was then forced to strip naked.
"They made her sit on the chair, tied her up and shaved her hair," she said. "Tape was on her legs, and then rope on the arms"
At one point the detective asked if Pairama fought back, but the teen said no.
"She doesn't know how to fight... she just went with it."
The teen says Winter then told her co-accused, Kerry Te Amo, that it was his turn to beat Pairama up.
"I saw him take one punch over here, and then that's when Ashley closed the door, and then I heard like (Pairama's) bones breaking," she said.
"I think he broke her ribs."
The witness says she pleaded for them to stop, but Winter then used a lighter and chemical spray to burn Pairama.
"Ashley went looking in the cupboard, there was heaps of chemicals in there. She found a spray, and I think it was a spray paint. She lit the lighter up, and then sprayed it towards the lighter and burnt her body parts."
Pairama was then allegedly covered in a sheet before chemicals were poured on her.
As the 17-year-old lay on the ground, she was given a chilling choice.
"[Winter] then goes, 'how do you wanna die, you only got till three o'clock. If you don't tell me I'm gonna stab your throat'."
The witness says she was then left alone with Pairama, and offered her the chance to escape.
"I asked her if she was alright, she said no. She goes she wants to see her nana, and that's when I got her clothes and I gave it to her.
"I said get out the window and just go as far as you can, but she said she was too scared. She told me to tell Ashley that she wants to hang herself."
The teen says she was then told to look out for police, but fell asleep. When she woke, she saw Pairama's dead body.
She says Te Amo and Winter then wrapped Pairama in a sheet and put her body in a metal drum on the property. They originally planned to burn down the property, but the witness says neighbours scared them off.
"I think they saw them taking the body out," she told police.
"So they called out and said 'who's in the house', and then they said if we don't come out they'll call the cops. Ashley went outside, had a little chat with the girl and came back.
"She said we have to go, so we didn't get to burn the room."
Earlier in the trial, it was revealed that the attack was interrupted when police knocked at the door about an unrelated matter.
The court heard a teary Pairama answered.
Crown Prosecutor Natalie Walker says police offered to speak to her in their patrol car, thinking there was a domestic disturbance. But she refused.
"She said something along the lines of 'don't worry', and that she didn't want to talk about it... and she refused to walk away with them."
In the police interview played today, the witness said Pairama had offered to cover for the others, but Winter went with her.
"They just said [Pairama] had a breakup… Then they told the cops everything was alright."
It wasn't until a fight broke out at the Britomart McDonald's in Central Auckland that police were tipped off to Pairama's killing. The court heard officers called to the scene spoke to a teenage girl who accused Winter of murdering her friend.
The trial continues.
Newshub.
