12.30PM: Two neighbours who called the police the night Ron Brown was attacked in his Onehunga home have this morning described to a depositions hearing what they heard and saw the night of December 7th last year, with one expressing his deep regret that he did not make a 111 call earlier. Ronald Brown Brown died in hospital two days later, after his life support was turned off. A Hungarian tourist, Ferdinand Ambach, who was found by police in Brown's home after the attack, was subsequently charged with murder, assault and intentional damage. A middle-aged man who lived in the adjoining semi-detached house says he was woken by a loud bang at around 11.45pm, but did not initially call police. Looking down from an upstairs window the witness says he saw a man standing at Brown's front door. He described the man as "youngish and well-built," and had the impression he was holding something. He could see that the glass and wire mesh door was broken. The witness said he shouted down to the man that he would call the police and questioned whether he was holding a half a brick. He says the man shrugged and shouted something in a foreign language which the witness took to mean "Fuck off!" He says he should have called the police right then and "deeply regrets" that he did not, "but I wanted to spare Ronnie any embarrassment, so there was an unforgivable delay in my calling the police." Instead, the witness, who had known Brown for fifteen years and been a neighbour for five, phoned Brown and asked if he was ok. He says Brown, who he describes as normally upbeat and lighthearted, replied: "The prick has broken the door." "Shall I call the police?" Brown apparently hesitated, then said: "Yes, call the police." The witness said he suspected that Brown had been drinking. "I know Ron well enough that if he hadn't had a drink on a Friday night, that would be an exception. But he was lucid." The neighbour then phoned 111. Soon after, he says, he heard shouts and "a wide assortment of banging and crashing." He saw "glass flying around" and part of a double bed thrown through a window. He could see the bathroom window and believed bathroom fittings were "being interfered with." He tried phoning Brown again but got an engaged signal. Police arrived and asked if there were any firearms in the house, to which the neighbour replied "No, very unlikely." He says he eventually saw six policemen manage to subdue the man and heard "noises of protest, pain and anger as they took him away." He asked how Brown was, and was told he had been removed from the house and was lying down. The neighbour told the hearing that Brown was extremely sociable, with a wide circle of friends. He says he and Brown often argued amicably about politics. He says Brown often went out socialising but led a quiet home life with mostly family as visitors. Asked by defence lawyer Paul Dacre about Brown's drinking, the witness said "Ron enjoyed his drink but would not become the worse for wear." Asked if he had ever seen Brown invite others home, he replied: "I only ever saw him with family members." Asked if he had ever seen anyone leaving Brown's home in the morning, the neighbour replied: "No, never." One other witness, a student living nearby, also gave evidence this morning. He recounted hearing sounds which initially led him to fear his car was being smashed up. Through lighted windows in Brown's home saw the silhouette of a person throwing a lamp out a window. He could hear a man screaming. He subsequently saw several more objects, including "the frame of a bed," thrown out a window over approximately twenty minutes. The witness he started to worry that there was somebody else in the house and called the police. More written evidence will be presented to the depositions hearing this afternoon, after which the two JPs hearing evidence will decide if the matter should proceed to trial.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 10th July 2008 - 12:15pm