A 50-year-old man is accused of killing five people by setting the Loafers Lodge boarding house alight on 16 May, 2023. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The court has been told CCTV footage shows the Loafers Lodge accused putting a knife up his jumper in the days before he lit the fatal fire.
The defendant, whose identity is suppressed, is on trial at the High Court in Wellington charged with five counts of murder and two of arson for setting the Wellington boarding house alight in 2023.
It's not disputed he lit two fires, but the man's lawyers intend to use the defence of insanity.
The Crown says the man knew what he was doing was morally wrong.
Detective sergeant Olivia Meares, who was reading out descriptions of the CCTV footage, said an image of the man putting a knife up his jumper was recorded on the 12 May in the south hall on Level 3 of Loafers Lodge.
Images preceding that show the defendant picking up and washing a knife in the kitchen of the lodge in the morning.
On Friday the court was shown highly detailed, and at times, minute-by-minute footage of the accused's movements over the 10th, 11th and 12th of May.
That includes footage of the defendant walking through the hallways at Loafers Lodge, entering the kitchen and bathroom, having a brief conversation with another resident on one day, entering the lifts, and entering and exiting the building several times over those days.
The fire started in the early hours of 16 May.
On Wednesday, defence lawyer Steve Gill suggested the defendant was very unwell at the time of lighting the fire because he hadn't taken his schizophrenia medication for a month.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Justin Barry-Walsh, who interviewed the defendant multiple times following the fires, said on balance there was "too much doubt" that he did not know it was wrong.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
