[ad_1]
A rising American polo star was killed in a Christchurch spa pool when a small social gathering “went horribly, tragically wrong,” a jury has heard.
Lauren Mikaila Biddle, 22, was found dead in a spa at a Clifton home near Sumner in Christchurch on October 22, 2018. Emergency responders pronounced her dead at around 1:20 am
Guy Higginson was the first witness to testify in the jury trial of Joseph Douglas McGirr in Christchurch District Court on Monday.
McGirr, 39, is accused of supplying Biddle and Higginson with a class B drug and perverting the course of justice. He has previously pleaded not guilty to these charges, but has admitted to a charge of growing cannabis.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON / Stuff
Joseph Douglas McGirr on the first day of his trial in Christchurch District Court.
Crown prosecutor Kerry White said that at the heart of the trial was “a little social gathering that went horribly, tragically wrong.”
Higginson met Biddle in the polo world in 2015 and they stayed in touch. In 2018, he invited her to visit him in Australia before traveling to New Zealand together.
Higginson also invited another friend, Sam Chambers, to visit him in New Zealand.
On the morning of October 21, Higginson, Biddle, and Chambers returned from a hunting trip and decided to visit McGirr at his home in Clifton.
Things
Joseph Douglas McGirr arrives at Christchurch District Court during an earlier appearance.
They planned to stay the night because they knew they would be drinking.
After their arrival, the group dipped into McGirr’s spa pool, drank alcohol, and smoked cannabis. Higginson said he had taken a can of cannabis to give to McGirr as a “gift.”
They smoked it, then some McGirr. Higginson said he thought it “looked kind of funny” and didn’t have much of it.
Chambers’ girlfriend picked him up later in the evening, but the others continued drinking at the spa.
Higginson said he later saw McGirr “grinding something” in a bowl in the kitchen. McGirr produced a wooden cutting board with three lines of powder, which Higginson understood as ecstasy, and a tube.
Supplied
Lauren Biddle arrived in New Zealand just 10 days before dying on October 22, 2018.
Higginson and Biddle inhaled some dust, and Higginson told the jury that he assumed McGirr inhaled some as well. Higginson said he had never taken ecstasy before, but thought he would “give it a try.”
He said he didn’t remember much “for a while” after inhaling the line, but recalled that McGirr offered them another line a little later, which they both took.
“The next thing I remember is… I felt like my head was going to explode.
“It was very, very strange, I had never felt like this in my life.”
Higginson said he walked away and then saw McGirr sitting in the far corner of the spa.
“He just said, ‘Lauren is dead.’
Biddle had his head back and was not moving. Higginson shook her, but she didn’t respond. “She’s dead,” McGirr said again, he told the jury.
He said he took her out of the spa and yelled at McGirr to call an ambulance while he was giving her CPR.
He said McGirr stayed at the spa and became aggressive, saying he would not allow the police to enter his home.
Higginson said he took Biddle’s phone to call 111, but McGirr told him not to.
Then he got Biddle into his car, backed his car to the top of the steep road, and called emergency services.
supplied
Tommy Biddle and his daughter, Lauren Biddle.
Defense attorney Rupert Glover challenged Higginson on aspects of his testimony, arguing that his memory worsened as the night progressed due to the amount he had to drink.
Glover said McGirr claimed he was alone in his kitchen when he crushed an ecstasy pill and inhaled it before returning to the spa.
McGirr claimed Higginson then went into the kitchen “uninvited,” crushed an ecstasy pill and inhaled it himself. McGirr said he heard Biddle laugh and that he thought she was huffing ecstasy in the kitchen too.
Higginson denied that happened and said the only ecstasy he and Biddle took was the powder that McGirr gave them on the cutting board.
McGirr argued that he was the one who realized Biddle was unconscious and took her out of the spa and started CPR on her. He said he later saw Higginson face down in the spa and pulled him out of the water as well, “saving his life.”
He said Higginson came to himself later but was “extremely drunk.”
“That’s not what happened,” Higginson replied.
Glover said McGirr was “deeply concerned” for Biddle, but was unable to take her to the hospital himself because he wore an electronic monitoring bracelet on his ankle after being convicted of driving under the influence a few weeks earlier.
Glover asked Higginson if time had elapsed before calling 111 after reaching the top of the driveway, which Higginson denied.
During his opening statement, White alleged that after Higginson left with Biddle, McGirr removed the evidence from the party, closed the spa pool lid, and disposed of the liquor bottles.
She told the jury that she collected Biddle’s clothes and bag and buried them in a section of bushes under her house.
Later, police found seven cannabis plants that McGirr had also allegedly thrown into the weeds.
White said a toxicology test found Biddle’s blood alcohol level was nearly four times the legal limit for an adult driver when he died.
He also had a very high concentration of MDMA in his system, about 15 times higher than the usual level of recreational use of the drug.
White said the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy said the most likely cause of death was a drug overdose that resulted in sudden cardiac arrest.
The trial continues.
