Lesbian accidentally kills best friend while playing with a shotgun before threesome

A woman accidentally killed one of her best friends when she fired a shotgun at him, not knowing it was loaded, while messing around ahead of a planned group sex session.

Tiffani Jade Sutcliffe, 23, shot flatmate Rhys Gordon Williamson, 40, after he interrupted the early stages of a menage-a trois-involving Sutcliffe, her girlfriend, 20, and Anthony Brett Clegg, 39, who was recently released from jail.

The randy trio had were just getting started after consuming large quantities of alcohol and the sedative GHB, when Williamson entered the room pointing a sawn-off shotgun at Sutcliffe. She later told police he was just "playing around".

She took the gun from him and pointed at him from two metres away and asked "Is this thing loaded?" – as she simultaneously pulled the trigger.

Williamson collapsed to the ground and died but not before he uttered the memorable last words: "Of course it's loaded you stupid slut!"

On 17 October, Sutcliffe pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reckless discharge of a firearm, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment in New Zealand. She had known Williamson since she was nine.

Sutcliffe's cousin spoke to the New Zealand Herald at the scene of the incident when it took place in May. He said: "I went over there and there was him in a pool of blood. He was in the room and we dragged him outside and we were going to put him in the truck and take him to hospital but the armed officers got here before then."

Clegg had brought the weapon to the house and has already been jailed for his part in the shooting. He was only five weeks out of jail when he supplied the gun that led to his friends death.

In a statement read by the judge, he said William's parents "consider that their son will still be alive and their lives would not have changed to the extent they have as a result of their son's death". Clegg was sentenced to two years in jail. Sutcliffe will be sentenced on 23 November.