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Offender Databases Brian McCutcheon

Brian Ivan Edmund McCutcheon

Alias

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Offences

Murder of a Parklands, Christchurch woman in January 2006

Victims

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Offender Affiliations

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Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1976

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life imprisonment in September 2006
A thirteen year minimum non-parole period was set
Earliest parole date January 2019

Background
NZ Herald story here
Christchurch Press story 21/07/2006
A woman pleaded for her life and told her attacker she had always loved him as he bashed and strangled her to death, the Christchurch District Court was told yesterday. Brian Ivan Edmund McCutcheon, 30, of Adelaide, yesterday admitted the murder in the Christchurch suburb of Parklands in early January. The guilty plea has been welcomed by the victim's family. A suppression order imposed by Judge Stephen Erber means the woman cannot be named. He also suppressed the name of her son, who was in the house at the time of the 35-year-old woman's death. Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said McCutcheon and the woman had been in a relationship but had separated.

They had tried to reconcile several times without success, and McCutcheon had gone to live in Australia. He returned unexpectedly to Christchurch last November and went to visit the woman and her son. He visited them daily for a time, but eventually heard that she was making allegations against him. On January 4, he went to her home and spoke to a neighbour while he waited for her and her son to return. Late that night, he knocked on the door and spoke to her. They argued, and the woman ordered him out of the house. McCutcheon got a hammer from the laundry and wrapped it in a sweatshirt. He struck her with it on the top of her head while she sat in the lounge. After the first blow, the woman defended herself and deflected further blows. Zarifeh said the woman pleaded with him for her life, saying she loved him.

McCutcheon placed her in a headlock and then held her in a stranglehold, using his fist when his hand became tired. This lasted for five or six minutes. He was a trained first-aid officer and when he thought she was dead, he wiped blood off his arms and face and changed his clothing, which was covered in blood, before covering her body with a duvet. He then woke the boy, drove him in the woman's car and dropped him at a relative's house. Zarifeh said the woman had 23 external wounds, including eight to the head, but the damage to her neck indicated manual strangulation was the cause of death. The victim's father told The Press yesterday that the guilty plea was a relief for family members. "It was a release of stress that was going to be created by going through a trial," he said.

"There hasn't been a day go by since she died where I haven't thought about this or had something to do with this case. "This does give us some closure and allows us to move on a little." The victim's son was adjusting to life without his mother and had moved in with his grandparents. "He is doing well. Children show us adults up sometimes," the man said. "He is quite resilient and we make sure his mum is still a part of his life. When he is doing something that is not satisfactory, we say, `Mum will be looking down on you'. She will always have a part to play in his life." The judge ordered pre-sentence and victim-impact reports for the High Court sentencing on September 7.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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