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The trial of a Northland teenager accused of murdering his classmate got underway at the High Court in Whangarei on Monday.
Fifteen year old Liberty Rose Templeman, known as Libby, went
missing from Kerikeri in November 2008.
Her body was found face down on the banks of the Wairoa Stream in
Kerikeri.
The 16-year-old accused pleaded not guilty to the murder and indecent assault of the schoolgirl. He was 14 at the time.
He cannot be named, but the prosecutor says he left Libby to die, in a bruised and battered condition.
Libby had gone to visit friends in Kerikeri for the weekend, and had been at an afternoon BBQ when she went missing. She left the BBQ with the accused, to go and meet another friend.
The accused told police that he had left Libby safe and well that night.
He also told them she had a blood nose on the day she died, and that he had helped her clean up, even showing them a rubbish bin where he had put the used tissues.
Five days after Libby's body was found, the accused however confessed to striking and strangling her, and leaving her in the stream to make it look like a rape.
But on Monday when the case opened, he denied murdering and indecently assaulting her.
Justice Raynor Asher has banned the publication of names of all juvenile witnesses and the still photography and televising of the accused.
The judge says he would review the suppression order of the accused's name when a verdict was known.
The trial is expected to last three weeks and the Crown is expected to call more than 40 witnesses.
