The older sister of murder accused David Benbow’s ex-partner is giving evidence today, telling the court her sister was paranoid about what he was capable of when she left him.
She has known former prison officer Benbow for 20 years. He’s on trial for murdering his friend Michael McGrath in May 2017, at the time he was in a romantic relationship with Toni Green’s sister Joanna.
The Crown says that relationship was a catalyst for the killing.
Toni Green went to school with the victim McGrath, and saw him often when he was doing work at her sister’s house. One job was a playhouse for her nieces, which she described as “beautiful”.
In November 2016 “the biggest change I saw was when Dave went to Wellington for corrections training and my sister just blossomed, I haven’t seen her like that in years,” Green said.
“There was no negativity, I think she’d started her job at Halswell School, her self esteem improved….that all changed when he came back,” Green told the court.
Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes asked: “Did you think sometimes Jo was having a go at David?”
She replied: “Yes I did.”
She said on Christmas Day 2016 “something happened between Jo and Dave and she said that was the final straw…. I could see Jo just shrinking she wasn’t happy at all.”
When Green was asked about Joanna moving out in March 2017 she said: “She was very stressed… very paranoid about what Dave could be capable of.”
"I asked Jo and she said she didn’t intend it to happen but her and Mike started a relationship, she was so happy… I said be careful, be very careful and don’t let the kids see it,” Green said.
She said Joanna told her it hadn’t started until she’d left Benbow.
After the break-up, Green was asked about her friendship with Benbow.
“I cared about him. I cared about how he was feeling, I wanted to kindly support him as well as my sister,” Green told the court.
She was asked about a phone call she got on May 2017 from Benbow.
“He sounded terrible, he was heartbroken, he wanted his family back and I just said one foot in front of the other.”
They agreed to meet in person the following week.
“I think he was suspicious… about Mike and Jo having a relationship,” Green told the court.
On that phone call he’d told her “that he was mentally unwell, he’d been to see the GP… and his daughter had told him she’d seen them kissing...I played it down because I wanted to protect my sister and I cared about Dave.”
The next Monday she went to see him at his house in Candys Rd.
“He looked terrible, he’d lost weight he was very gaunt…he was pleased to see me,” Green said.
“He was distraught, he was heartbroken, his behaviour was extremely odd, he went from sobbing to sort of giggling and then anger.”
The court heard he wasn’t sleeping, working or eating.
“Somebody should have worked out I was sick before all this happened," Green said Benbow told her.
“He was ranting it was going on while he was away, that Mike was his best mate and he was shagging my sister, his partner.”
She admitted she lied.
“I cared about him and I could see he was struggling.”
When she left she hugged him and told him to keep his chin up but she felt very concerned for him when she lift that he would hurt himself because she knew he had a gun.
On the day of McGrath's disappearance, in May 2017, Joanna rang her sister saying: “I think Dave’s done something to him."
"I said 'I think you might be right, you’d better ring the police',” Green told the court.
She received texts from Benbow in the days following, when he was being denied access to his children.
“It was all very scary for a start, I didn’t want to wind him up, I honestly didn’t know what to say.”
She did talk to her sister about it “but there was no way she was going to give him access”.
She said he arrived at her house one night with paperwork to do with the separation, she said it made her feel quite uneasy, and she hadn't seen him since.
Green will continue to give evidence this afternoon, on the eighth day of the murder trial at the High Court in Christchurch.
At the start of the day defence counsel told the jury it was accepted that angry texts sent to crime reporter Sam Sherwood, saying the police investigation was a witch hunt and pointing the finger at Joanna Green, were from Benbow himself.
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