Evidence On Wells’s Relationship With Girl

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31291, 10 February 1967, Page 3

Evidence On Wells’s Relationship With Girl

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, February 9.

A 44-year-old unemployed sheetmetal worker told the police that the 19-year-old waitress he is charged with murdering, had blackmailed him, Detective Inspector J. A. McCarthy informed a jury at the Auckland Supreme Court today.

Before the Court is William George Wells, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering Lesley Margaret Soutter at Auckland on or about March 29 last year. Mr D. S. Morris and Mr W. D. Baragwanath appear for the prosecution, while Mr A. M. Finlay and Mr R. L. MacLaren are defending. The trial will enter its fifth day tomorrow when the prosecution is expected to finish its case. Detective Inspector McCarthy said that on March 30 inquiries were started to trace a man the police believed had left the 246 Building with Miss Soutter the previous day. The following night he interviewed Wells who told him he had walked down Queen street with the girl.

He said he left her near the bus terminal, caught a bus to Newmarket, had something to eat in a coffee bar there and then went home. At 5.45 p.m. his flatmate arrived and spent the evening at home. About 9.30 p.m. Wells went to telephone his fiancee. On the way he changed a 10s note and after making the call he went home. Stayed In Flat On March 30, he said he stayed in until lunch-time, then went to buy something to eat. On his return he was met by his fiancee and her family. Apart from a trip for cigarettes, he stayed in the rest of the day. On the day of the interview he said he had got two jobs and was due to start one the following day.

Asked for more specific details of his movements on the Tuesday, he said he had gone into town to try and get a job. Near Harmony House he said he bought a “Herald.” On his way towards the ferry buildings he met Miss Soutter.

After general conversation they parted. When he got back to his home about 1 p.m. he helped a Japanese woman who lived in a front flat to search unsuccessfully for her wedding ring lost down the sink.

Wells told him he had spent from 1939-1965 in England, had become a fully qualified sheetmetal worker and St John Ambulance male nurse. Met On Ship He first met Miss Soutter on board the Southern Cross as they were travelling to New Zealand. They were only shipboard acquaintances. He had seen her on three or four occasions since in the coffee lounge where she worked. On April 1 he made a long statement in which he repeated his story. The statement concluded by saying that he had been charged 15 times with theft or housebreaking while in England and had been released from prison three years before coming to New Zealand. He had never been charged with

any offence of violence nor anything to do with abortion. He did not know any abortionists in Auckland. In another statement he said: “We have no time for people like that (abortionists) inside. I have known them to be cut up in prison when they have done things like that.” Wells also said he did not know Miss Soutter was pregnant until he was told, and he did not know where Miss Soutter lived in Auckland. Blackmail Alleged During the course of another conversation Wells mentioned that Miss Soutter had blackmailed him for about £5O to £6O.

It had started on the ship when he had given her £l2. She told him then that it was better on the ship than behind walls, by which he understood she knew something about his past. Asked why he had not gone to the police, he said he did not want anything to do with them. He had paid her other money in the coffee lounge because he did not want her to go to his home.

Wells said on a number of occasions he had never been round the back of the badminton hall.

Cross-examined by Mr Maclaren, the inspector said Wells had amended one of his state-

ments in which he claimed he was a nurse. He said he had been an orderly and this had been verified.

Victor William Arthur Loord, of Belmont, manager of Harmony House, said a man who gave the name and address of Wells sold him a fishing rod and reel for £1 10s on March 31. The man identified himself by newspaper clippings with a photograph. Detective-Sergeant Harold Dedman said he spent a week searching through books and papers belonging to Miss Soutter in an attempt to match a print taken from the right thumb found on the body. After hundreds of prints had been developed he found one that matched. Matching Prints The chances of two people having 10 points of similarity in a print was 9,765,000 to one, he said.

Cross-examined by Mr Maclaren, Detective-Sergeant Dedman said that as far as he knew no-one had accomplished as he had done or tried to restore the ridges in a finger in New Zealand. It had been done successfully overseas.

Dr. Donald Frederick Nelson said he examined and compared various articles given to him by the police. One of the comparisons concerned hair found at the scene with hair from rollers taken from Miss Soutter’s flat. In his opinion they came from the same person. During the afternoon a number of witnesses gave evidence of finding articles of clothing in the Mangere domain area.