After dark, in the stairwell of a block of Christchurch flats, two men were arguing. 

One of them was Sydney Boyd, a 66-year-old cat lover who some tenants in the Housing New Zealand complex called the “bank” because of his willingness to lend money.

It wasn’t unusual for shouting and yelling to echo around the building, which was home to drunks, drug addicts and those who’d fallen on hard times.

After a brief pause in the dispute, glass was heard shattering.

Trent Revell, a tenant in the building at 281 Riccarton Rd, rang 111 at about 8.30pm on May 23, 2006, and told the operator there’d been an incident.

“You’d better hurry,” Revell said.

“He’s right outside my f…… door.”

Revell lived at flat 38, which was on the ground floor of C Block, one of three, identical, three storey blocks at the social housing complex.

In the background, the operator could hear the sound of a television. 

“You’d better send the cops as well,” Revell, who’d been watching Sensing Murder, said.

“The guy upstairs threw him out the window.”

Revell told the operator he’d heard two men arguing before the incident.

One of them told the other to “f… off” repeatedly, shortly before a window shattered and “the guy landed in front of me”.

Emergency services arrived a short time later to find Boyd lying on the ground at the entrance to C Block. 

Shards of reinforced glass from an 81cm x 77cm window in the building’s stairwell were scattered on the concrete around him.

He’d fallen about 2.1m and was bleeding heavily from a gash in his head, but was conscious and able to talk.

He knew his first name, but couldn’t immediately recall his last.

Paramedic Wayne Balloch asked Boyd what had happened.

He said he’d been in a fight and was pushed out the window but was unable to name his attacker.

Boyd was taken to Christchurch Hospital where his condition deteriorated and his family was told to expect the worse.

On the night of his fall, Boyd walked the short distance from his A Block home to C Block, where he’d arranged to meet fellow resident Glenn Green, who lived in flat 43, for a cup of tea.

Green had borrowed money from Boyd and owed him about $30.

As Boyd entered the building, it appears he unplugged an extension cord that ran from a shared laundry area into Trent Revell’s room on the ground floor.

He then began making his way up the stairs to Green’s flat, which was on the first floor.

Residents gave different accounts of the events that followed.

When police arrived, Revell, who’d lived in the complex for about three years, emerged from his flat and spoke to Constable Deborah Wilson.

A sickness beneficiary, he’d had issues with drugs and alcohol and was known to police. 

According to police records, Revell told Wilson that he was checking his washing on a clothesline outside, when Boyd, whom he didn’t know, walked past him and into C Block.

A short time later, he noticed the extension cord was “slack” and found it unplugged.

Revell marched up the stairs looking for the culprit and found Boyd “waiting around” in the stairwell on the first floor.

To his surprise, Boyd confirmed he’d unplugged the cord and then “started verbally having a go at me”.

Revell said he told Boyd to “piss off” before turning to head back to his room.

It was then that the door to flat 44, which was on the first floor, opened. He told Wilson he did not see anyone emerge, but heard the distinctive Canadian accent of the man who lived there.

Revell said the man, who he did not know by name, talked to Boyd about how he was “over here causing trouble again” before saying three times “do you want to have a go”.

He said he then heard a “crash bang noise” and “I saw the old guy hit the ground outside”.

“As soon as that happened, the door to flat 44 shut. Nothing was said after that.”

Revell said he checked Boyd after the fall and, realising he was in a bad way, rang 111 from his room. He remained there until emergency services arrived.

The man who lived in flat 44 was Todd Selinger, a former Papanui High School head boy who was born in Canada and moved to New Zealand when he was about 10 years old.

According to police records, he told Constable Stephen Rochford that he was watching a British army programme on television when he heard “two males going at each other” outside his flat.

He recognised both voices. 

One was Boyd’s. The other, which was nasally and Australian-like, belonged to Revell, Selinger told Rochford.

The pair were arguing about a power cord.

“They were yelling at each other, but in these places you get used to that.”

The dispute lasted a minute.

“I yelled out, ‘Piss off you perverts’. Shortly after I heard … glass shattering.”

Selinger said he opened his door and made his way down the stairs directly in front of his flat.

He looked out the broken window and saw a man lying face down on the ground below.

“I went down and found Syd … breathing heavily and trying to speak. I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say.”

After attempting to put Boyd in the recovery position so he didn’t suffocate on the blood pooling around his head, Selinger said he went to get help.

He rang Revell’s doorbell, but there was no response, so he went to the room of a nearby resident and asked him to ring 111.

When Selinger went back outside he saw a car drive away from the car park, but didn’t see what type.

Emergency services arrived a short time later.

Police spoke briefly to Glenn Green, the man Boyd had arranged to visit, who said he’d been home all night.

He’d heard a noise about the time of Boyd’s fall, but didn’t know what it was.

Three days later, Green told Detective Dorren Howe that on the night of the incident he’d “nodded off to sleep in his flat” and was woken by the sound of people shouting in the stairwell.

“I heard a door slam, then I heard someone say, ‘You’, really loudly. Then the arguing started.”

At first, he didn’t recognise any of the voices involved in the dispute. At one point, he thought he heard a third person, a man, tell them to “f... off”.

“They were swearing at each other … then I realised that one of the voices was Syd’s because I heard him say, ‘I’m only up here for a cup of tea’.”

Green recalled someone saying “stick your dukes up” shortly before things went quiet.

“Then I heard a thud. I didn’t hear the sound of glass breaking, I just heard a thud.”

He remained in his room until he heard what sounded like police radios downstairs about 10 minutes later.