The judge presiding at the murder trial of two teenage girls at the High Court in Rotorua today warned the jury photographs they were to be shown were graphic.
Justice Geoffrey Venning suggested if the jurors were distressed by the pictures projected on to a screen they concentrate on the evidence a pathologist would be giving while the photographs were displyed.
Courtney Churchward, 18, and a 15-year-old girl whose name is suppressd are on trial for murdering 78-year-old retired schoolteacher John Rowe at his Opotiki home on November 25 last year.
The pathologist, Dr Jane Vuletic, told the court Mr Rowe's entire forehead was covered with multiple jaggered lacerations. There were three scalp lacerations up to 5cm long with portions of skull visible and broken.
A considerable degree of force would have been needed to inflict these injuries, she said.
