Wanted Man Took Money On Yacht

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30401, 28 March 1964, Page 13

Wanted Man Took Money On Yacht

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, March 26.

A man wanted in connexion with the great train robbery boarded the yacht Christine on the night she disappeared, the yacht’s owner, Edward Anderson, told an inquest in Dover yesterday.

Anderson said the wanted man, Ronald Edwards, had arrived aboard the yacht with a suitcase, opened it up and shown him a large wad of £5 notes. Edwards had been accompanied by another man, also carrying suitcases, whom Anderson did not know. Anderson said that just

before the Christine moved out of Ramsgate harbour on January 3 another man who was aboard the yacht, Dennis Bassett, had told him there was £1,000,000 in the suitcases.

Anderson was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Bassett, a 32-year-old London stock car driver, whose body was washed up on the Belgian coast last month.

Medical evidence at the inquest said Bassett died from drowning. There were no marks of violence. Anderson said in evidence that he had previously discussed with a former owner of the yacht, Ronald Verrier, taking a package on the Christine to a rendezvous, but he had not known then what it would contain. Anderson said Bassett had not appeared surprised when the two men boarded the yacht. Anderson said he had asked Edwards what was in the cases. Edwards had replied: “What do you think?” Edwards then had gone to one of the suitcases and produced a large wad of notes, most of them £5 notes. The Coroner asked Anderson whether any of this money Was intended for him, but the witness refused to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate him. Anderson said he had left the Christine before it sailed from Ramsgate harbour and had never seen it or Bassett again. He had later travelled to Ireland.

Another witness, Dr. Edward Griffiths, told the inquest that Ronald Verrier had suggested to him that he “witness the disappearance of Ms Edward Anderson."

Griffiths said he understood he would have earned £20,000. V°rrier had told him; "All you have to do is see Anderson on the boat and witness him disappear o’* the boat He could be dumped in Ireland." During his. evidence, Anderson said a £150,000 insurance policy on his life had been taken out by Verrier. Anderson was still testifying when the inquest adjourned until Monday.