Within days of discovering his wife was leaving him, an Invercargill police officer was searching rifles for sale online.
When Constable Benjamin Peter McLean (48) pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder before the High Court at Invercargill yesterday, court documents were released which suggested he meticulously planned the shooting of the woman and her new partner.
On April 5, Verity McLean (40), known as "Bert", had told the defendant she had begun a relationship with his close friend of 15 years, 47-year-old Garry Duggan.
On Anzac Day, after his wife had broken into the Scott St address they formerly shared to retrieve her belongings, he packed a bag and cycled to her new abode.
The rucksack he took contained a cut-down .22 rifle to which a silencer had been fixed with black insulation tape.
And there was further evidence of McLean’s preparation.
He packed blue disposable rubber gloves, a small bottle of hand sanitiser, plastic handcuffs (the same type the Armed Offenders Squad uses), strips of towel and a portable radio tuned to the Invercargill police channel.
Mrs McLean was found dead with a single bullet wound under her chin.
"Some aspects suggest it may have been staged to resemble a suicide," a police summary said.
But a postmortem ruled out any possibility the death was self-inflicted.
It revealed nearly 40 other injuries consistent with "a fight or fracas", the court heard yesterday.
Towel strips later found in McLean’s bag were bloody and covered in saliva, a summary of facts said, and in a fireplace were burnt remains consistent with plastic handcuffs.
Mr Duggan arrived back at the Otepuni Ave property at 8pm, where McLean lay in wait. He was faced with his former friend holding a rifle trained directly at him.
McLean shot the victim in the right upper chest and again in the forearm.
Despite the wounds, Mr Duggan grabbed the firearm from his former friend and smashed it over his head, causing the stock to break off. A violent struggle ensued as the man fought for his life.
But the defendant responded by pulling out a 50cm wooden baton from the backpack and hitting him in the head.
McLean put the victim in a "choke hold" but he continued to fight back, using the baton against his attacker.
Eventually the exhausted pair reached a physical stalemate and sat arguing.
When Mr Duggan quizzed him about Mrs McLean’s whereabouts, the defendant claimed she was at a friend’s house and soon after fled on his bike.
Police arrived to find Mr Duggan bleeding profusely and Mrs McLean dead inside the house.
Later that evening, McLean called his children, telling one of them: "I have f...ed everything. I’m f...ed. I went round and shot and killed Bert and shot Garry ... I’m on the run ... I’ve killed her. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea".
After he called his daughter, her boyfriend and his mother took McLean to the police station to hand himself in.
On the way there the defendant told them his kids "would hate him forever and he would be inside for at least 20 years".
When Mrs McLean’s father visited his daughter’s killer at Invercargill prison on May 3, he explained his actions.
"She wouldn’t talk to me or have anything to do with me and I snapped," McLean said.
The pair had been married for 18 years, according to court documents, and they had three children together.
Mrs McLean and Mr Duggan had started seeing each other in late 2016 and it had taken her more than four months to deliver the news to the defendant.
The families of the victims requested privacy after yesterday’s hearing.
"This has been a very difficult year for us all and as Christmas approaches we are all going to find it a tough time but will get through it together with the support of those around us and community understanding," they said in a statement.
Justice Rachel Dunningham remanded McLean in custody and he will be sentenced on Monday.
How it happened
Pre-Christmas 2016: Verity McLean and Garry Duggan begin a relationship.
April 5: Mrs McLean tells her husband Const Ben McLean she is leaving him.
April 12: The searches for .22 rifles for sale online.
April 25, 8.30am: McLean drops two of his children off at a relative’s home in Dunedin. Mrs McLean calls him to tell him she broke into family home to gather belongings.
1.50pm: The pair speak on the phone again, it becomes heated and McLean hangs up.
5.25pm: The accused arrives back at his Scott St home. Some time later, McLean goes to Otepuni Ave property and shoots his wife.
8pm: Mr Duggan returns home and he, too, is shot; the pair fight and the accused flees. He is later picked up and hands himself into police.
April 27: Postmortem on Mrs McLean shows 39 external injuries aside form the gunshot wound.
May 3: McLean tells his wife’s father he "snapped", during a prison visit.
May 8: Mr Duggan is discharged from hospital after surgery.
