Accused Tells Of Girl’s Death In His Car

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 3

Accused Tells Of Girl’s Death In His Car

(New Zealand Press Association)

TIMARU, April 19.

John Alexander Ramsay admitted in the Supreme Court, Timaru, today that he had struck Gillian Margaret Thompson with a bottle, hit her with a “karate chop,” and stuffed a newspaper gag in her mouth before placing her in the boot of his car.

Ramsay also admitted that he had lied when he claimed the girl’s father had given him £lOO to kill the girl.

Ramsay, a 23-year-old Waihaorunga farmer, married, with two children, has denied a charge that he murdered the 17-year-old Waimate girl near Waimate on New Year’s Day. The girl’s body was found in a deep offal pit on the accused’s property after a massive police search. The accused entered the witness box this afternoon and completed his evidence just before the Court rose. He will be cross-examined by the Crown tomorrow morning. The Crown Prosecutor is Mr

■ R. C. Savage (Wellington). , The accused is represented 1 by Mr B. J. Drake, with him I Mr M. J. Glue (Christchurch). 1 The trial, before Mr Juss tice Henry and a jury, is in its third day. I Ramsay detailed his move- • ments during New Year’s - Eve. They included two visits to Victoria Park and drinks ing in between at the Crite--1 rion Hotel. He drank beer t and whisky at the hotel and s also in a caravan on his secs ond trip to the park. r Statements “All Lies”

He admitted there was no fight near the piecart and no! blows were struck. Asked by counsel about previous statements he had made to his wife, the Mehrtens and the police, Ramsay replied: “They are all lies. Being a coward, I could not face up to things. . . .” Ramsay said he saw Miss Thompson turn the corner into Sleigh street. He said “Hello” and she came across to the car. He asked her if she wanted a lift home. She indicated that she lived just up the road. “We talked about things down in the park. . . . Who had won the different competitions and general things around the town,” said Ramsay. “I offered to take her for a ride in the car and we finally moved off about 1 a.m. I realised I was driving towards home. I wasn’t driving fast because I could feel the effects of the liquor I had drunk. “We got out to the farm about I.3o—maybe a bit before. I drove through the gateway, along the ridge and into the 90-acre paddock. She made no objection. “When I finally parked the car she was saying something about this job she had and different other jobs she was interested in. I asked her if she would like some beer. There were glasses, but no opener in the car.” “A Bit Annoyed” Ramsay said Miss Thompson’* attitude in th* car was “quit* normal,” but he got a bit annoyed when she claimed that his infant son had had to go into hospital because he had beaten him up. This was not true —the boy had gone into hospital because he was not putting on weight. Ramsay said Miss Thompson attempted to get out of the car, saying she was going to see his wife or a neighbour to tell how he had “picked her up." “She was going to make trouble,” said Ramsay, explaining that he grabbed a bottle and took a swing at her with it. The bottle smashed on the door, but part of it hit the girl on the head, and both suffered cuts from the broken glass. Ramsay said the girl became hysterical and said something like “What the hell did you do that for?” He slapped her to quieten her, she got back into the car, and they drove off in the direction of Waimate. Karate Chop

Ramsay stopped in a lay-by in the Waimate gorge to plead with her not to make trouble for him.

As a car passed, she attempted to get out and stop it, and Ramsay “swung round” with a karate chop. “I meant to hit her under the nose to knock her out, but I caught her under the throat as she was moving,” he said. The girl slumped out of the door, and he grabbed her and pulled her back. “I realised that I could not take her back to her parents unconscious. I panicked and did not know what to do,” he said.

He drove back in the direction of Waihao Forks. He ran out of petrol, and allowed the car to run backwards to Mr Mehrtens’s farm. Miss Thompson, still breathing but unconscious, was still lying across the front seat Put Girl In Boot

Ramsay said he placed the girl in the boot and, because he was afraid she would regain consciousness and yell out, he grabbed a newspaper. “I put It in her mouth as a gag so that she would not yell out.” Ramsay said he did not realise there was any risk to the girl’s life by inserting the gag. He believed her nose would have to have been blocked also to stop her breathing. He wrapped the girl in th* horse cover to keep her warm. Ramsay said that after leaving Mr Mehrtens’s farm he did not open the boot of his car until he arrived at his own property. “I found she was no longer breathing. I lifted her eye-lid and felt her pulse—there was nothing.” Ramsay said he did not know what to do and he drove to the offal pit Miss Thompson was definitely dead when he looked again. Replying to hi* Honour, Raqpay said it did not occur

to him to remove the gag from the girl’s mouth—“l thought she would be breathing through her nose. I could not think what had killed her."

Ramsay said he did think about going to the police, but he did not have the guts to face them.

Ramsay said he had no reason to kill the girl—“l had no wish to kill her, and I did not think any of my acts would kill her.”

Ramsay said he had first told his wife the lie about receiving £lOO from Mr Thompson to kill the girl—“l thought It would not look quite so bad in my wife’s eyes after I had picked up another girl.”

Ramsay said that, apart 'from picking up Miss Thompson, nothing else had happened between them. “I never tried to force my attentions on her.” Intended To Die Referring to his lie about being paid by the girl’s father, Ramsay said he never thought it would receive so much publicity as he had intended to “destroy” himself after making the statement to Detective Sergeant O’Donovan.

Ramsay said he “had no words to describe how sorry he was” for what he had done to the girl’s father. “On furnishing the statement I intended to pull the trigger,” said Ramsay. He did not want to hurt Detective Sergeant O’Donovan, and that was the reason he had not struggled with the rifle, in case It went off.

Ramsay said he could not remember saying in his statement that he must have hit Gillian again when he put her in the boot, and he had never known what had killed her.

Replying to his Honour, Ramsay said he had wondered what had killed the girl, but he had never known, although he realised it must have been something he had done. Blood In Car

This morning Mr Leslie Wilkinson, a senior D.S.I.R. officer, Mid Miss Thompson’s blood was of the B group, a group found in only 7 to 9 per cent of the population, while the accused had blood of the more common O group. B group bloodstains had been found in Ramsay’s car and the spreading of the spots indicated a struggle.

Mr Wilkinson said the charred remains and ash handed to him by the police bore no resemblance to the remains of paper money. Police witnesses described Ramsay’s behaviour before his arrest on January 22. Detective Constable M. K. J. Mitchell said he was helping Ramsay to draft some sheep in the paddock near the offal pit when a van load of police searchers arrived. Ramsay became agitated and made mistakes. Ramsay then went to the house and stayed in the toilet for a long time. Detective Sergeant P. J. O'Donovan said Ramsay had a rifle in the toilet and threatened to kill himself. He persuaded Ramsay to leave the toilet and to make a statement.

The statement, which was read to the court, was along the lines of Ramsay’s evidence, but alleged that Miss Thompson's father had given Ramsay £loo—which Ramsay said he later burnt in a turnip paddock—to “get rid of Gillian.” The witness agreed with Mr Drake that “in the main”

whenever the accused threatened to shoot, he meant he would shoot himself. Ramsay had never shown any real intention of harming the witness.. Defence Address Outlining the evidence for the defence, Mr Glue said two witnesses would be called —the accused, and a doctor who would give specialist evidence about gags. “You will hear the truth about this most unhappy affair,” said Mr Glue, adding that it was obvious the accused had told lies. Mr Glue submitted that at no time did the accused mean to cause the death of the girl. “It was caused by the insertion of the gag by Ramsay, but he had no intention to kill her. It was not premeditated and her death was a shocking and horrifying discovery.” The girl’s death was not the result of brutality or callousness but of ignorance, and Ramsay’s subsequent lies were aimed at preventing discovery. Mr Glue submitted that running out of petrol was the real reason for Gillian's death. When Ramsay placed her in the boot of his car, she was still alive but unconscious and, to prevent her calling out when he called at Mr Mehrtens’s for petrol, he gagged her. Ramsay was entirely Ignorant that the gag would cause suffocation. No-one would gag a corpse. In the circumstances, the defence suggested that Gillian Thompson was not murdered, Mr Glue said.