New Zealand man 'shared bed with dead girlfriend'

After killing his Thai sex-worker girlfriend, a New Zealand man slept next to her body, a court has heard. Giving evidence at his trial in the High Court at Auckland for murder, Gordon Hieatt, 48, said he strangled Nuttidar Vaikaew, also 48, with a slipknot after they had an argument in April last year. After she was dead, Hieatt washed her with a cloth before spending the night in bed with her body, the court was told yesterday. He denied touching her in a sexual way.

Hieatt spent most of the next month living with her rotting corpse in a curtained off corner of the lounge room of his North Island apartment, reading jokes to cheer himself up, Crown prosecutor Rachel Reed told the court earlier this month. Ms Vaikaew's landlord contacted police because he noticed a foul smell emanating from the apartment when he stopped by to collect overdue rent.



When police went to investigate in May they found an electric fan pointed at the corpse to try to minimise the stench. Ms Reed said Hieatt's computer records showed he engaged in online chats with a sex worker in Thailand while in the apartment. He also took four brief trips to Wellington, where he visited a prostitute.

Prosecutor David Johnstone said Hieatt made a conscious decision to kill Ms Vaikaew after he punched her and became worried she would contact the police. Hieatt responded yesterday: "I didn't want to kill her, it's not what I wanted to do." The trial continues.