Crown Case Ends In Williams’ Trial

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30767, 3 June 1965, Page 3

Crown Case Ends In Williams’ Trial

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 2. Evidence for the Crown was completed todav in the trial of Calvin Berry Williams, aged 22, a scrubcutter. Williams is charged with the attempted murder of Walter Rotherham, T.A.B. agent at Tuakau, on February 20, and, alternatively, that he wounded Rotherham with intent to facilitate commission of the crime of theft or to facilitate his flight upon the commission of this crime.

The trial is before Mr Justice Gresson and a jury. Mr C. J. Fernyhough appears for Williams and Mr D. S. Beattie is prosecuting. A detective sergeant, Richard John Squires, said he was called to the T.A.B. office at Tuakau on the evening of the shooting. He followed the trail of 10s notes from the T.A.B. office to a nearby garage where he found 15 to 20 10s notes. In all, he collected 60 10s notes. A nurse from Middlemore Hospital, Julie Simpson, said that on February 20 last she went to the Pukekohe show in the afternoon. She had seen Williams there. In the evening she had gone to a party in Tuakau with Williams’ brother, Clive. She returned with him and a group of friends to his Glen Murray flat. She said that Calvin Williams made an appearance in the early hours of the morning. He had not been in earlier. Good Reputation Timothy Foot, a farmhand, an acquaintance of the accused, said he saw him at Pukekohe Show at about 10 p.m. He said Williams had a reputation for being a decent young man with no reputation of being violent. Norman Campbell Hollis, who worked and shared a flat with the accused and his brother, Clive, said Clive told him Calvin had something to do with the T.A.B. robbery and he was going to give himself up. The accused was well-liked around Glen Murray. On February 20, he and the Williams brothers had been drinking at the show and then in the Tuakau Hotel. Usually when the accused drank, he became very quiet. “In the week after the shooting, I noticed he was not eating very much,” said Hollis. A Huntly miner, Donald Robert Donaldson, said he drank With the Williams brothers and Hollis, then at closing time went to the rodeo at Pukekohe Show, in which Clive Williams was taking part. They left Calvin Williams at Tuakau bridge as he said he did not want to see Clive get hurt. They did not see him again until he returned to' the flat early the next morning. Went To Police j Clive Anthony Williams, accused’s brother, said that on March 1, he was cutting scrub on the farm when Calvin told him that he was going to give himself up. Clive told him not to be silly. He thought he was talking about scrubcutting. Then Calvin said that he thought he might have committed the offence at the Tuakau T.A.B. office. “It was such a shock to me that I just said I would take him into Auckland, to the police station,” he said. They went back to the bach, so that Calvin could get changed and also get the money that he thought he had taken. The money was in a canvas bag hidden in a hot-water cylinder. He took Calvin to Mr Fernyhough. There was no mention of the gun at this stage. Witness said his brother was able to save money easily and had never had any need for it. He paid accused £8 an acre for scrub to be cleared. In an average week, it would amount to about £25. His brother had bought a car in January. He had not borrowed any money for tlje deposit, which he thought tf as £lOO and was able to pay off the instalments easily. Calvin was regarded as “timid,” rather than a violent sort of person. He was very well liked in the neighbourhood. Reaction To Liquor His brother was not generally a very heavy drinker, but when he had “had a few,” he became more argumentative, and thought that somebody was always picking on him, said the witness. “He didn't want to fight anybody or anything like that, although he became more aggressive,” he said. To Mr Fernyhough witness said he and his brother were 1 born in England and moved! when young to Australia.l Their parents were still in I Australia.

Witness said he came to New Zealand about three and a half years ago. Calvin came

slightly earlier. People in the community generally thought Calvin was well-mannered and a good worker.

i had a faint idea he had concealed the money. He said he got home on the Sunday morning about 4.30 a.m. When he got up he thought he had concealed the bag, had a look behind the water-heater, and felt the bag there. “Faint Recollection” Wilkinson said Williams said he just left it there. He said he realised it was a bag full of money—he just faintly recalled putting it there. He said he took it from its hiding place on the day of the interview, then walked up to his brother and said to him that he wanted to give himself up—he thought he was mixed up in the Tuakau robbery. Williams told him he was drinking 7oz glasses of beer on the afternoon before the shooting, said Wilkinson. He said he did not know where the shotgun was. He did not remember concealing it. To a further question he said he recalled throwing it into the river at Tuakau. He must have thrown the ammunition in with it. Wilkinson said Williams was asked if he owned a beige, fawn or yellowishcoloured handkerchief, and he said he was colour-blind. He said he had only his beard around the lower part of his face on February 20. He did not recall wearing any headgear that day. Asked what made him think he was involved in the robbery, he had replied: “I had a canvas bag full of money."

Lindley David Sinton, a de-tective-constable. said that about noon on February 26. as a result of inquiries, he spoke to the accused on a farm at Glen Murray, near Tuakau. He asked the accused if he could account for his movements on February 20. He also asked him if he had ever owned a shotgun. The accused said he had not owned a shotgun for 12 months. He did have a shotgun then, but had sold it to “an Aussie” in Sydney, and that on the evening of February 20 he had been to the show. Police Interviews A detective-inspector, Brian Wilkinson, said that on the evening of March 1 he saw the accused in his office in the presence of Mr Fernyhough and another detective. Williams said he went to the Tuakau Hotel with his brother about 1 p.m. on February 20, said Williams. He said he had a beard that time. He had shaved it off that day (March 1). Williams said he had owned a double-barrelled shotgun. He said he had bought ammunition for the gun from a Pukekohe hardware shop on a Friday night in February before the shooting. He said a canvas bag containing money, which had been handed to the police by his counsel, was, he thought, the money he had taken from the T.A.B. Williams said that on the morning after the shooting he

The trial will continue tomorrow.