he panicked after accidentally hitting the victim with his car and stabbed her "just to be sure she was dead," a jury was told on Wednesday. Glenn McNeill, a 29-year-old former cook on the island, pleaded innocent in the Norfolk Island Supreme Court last week to killing Janelle Patton, a 28-year-old hotel dining room manager, in 2002.
Opening the prosecution's case Wednesday, lawyer Dan Howard said McNeill had told police that he hit Patton with his car after smoking marijuana.
Howard said McNeill told the officers he had panicked and stuffed Patton in the trunk of his car. When he later heard "groaning noises" coming from the car, McNeill allegedly told police that he stabbed Patton "just to make sure she was dead."
"He told police that he thought he had gone too far to take her to hospital for treatment," Howard told the jury.
The injured woman had "resisted the attack and fought for her life, suffering defensive injuries inflicted by the accused," he said.
McNeill later dumped Patton's battered body at a popular picnic spot, Howard said.
Patton was the first person to be killed on the island since 194 descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers arrived here in 1856. Britain's Queen Victoria granted them Norfolk Island after Pitcairn Island, their first sanctuary, grew overcrowded.
If convicted, McNeill faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
A territory of Australia, Norfolk Island lies about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) northwest of Sydney.
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