MURDER ATTEMPT ON YACHT ALLEGED

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31480, 21 September 1967, Page 24

MURDER ATTEMPT ON YACHT ALLEGED

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 20.

Neville Fineberg had attacked him with a hammer and knife as he slept on a stolen yacht, Wylie Hanby Roberts alleged in the Supreme Court at Auckland today.

Fineberg, aged 27, a salesman, of Leeds, England, is charged that on June 19 on a Commonwealth ship, the South Pacific, on the high seas, he attempted to murder Wylie Hanby Roberts.

Alternatively, he is charged with wounding Roberts. He is being tried by a jury of three woman and nine men before Mr Justice Hardie Boys.

Mr W. D. Baragwanath appears for the Crown and Mr C. A. Patterson, of Kaitaia, for Fineberg. Roberts, in evidence, said that he was a sales manager and a United States citizen. He had met Fineberg in Sydney six or seven months ago when they were employed by the same company. Fineberg had asked him to go in the yacht as navigator because he was a licensed pilot.

Fineberg had made arrangements about the boat through a man named Thompson. It was either to be hired or

someone else’s boat, and he was going to deliver it to New Zealand.

Thompson, Fineberg, he and his son went on board the South Pacific in the Brisbane River about the middle of April. Thompson left them at the outer limits of the harbour. Fuel Low

The supply of fuel ran low after two or three days and about the sixth day they lost a few of the sails in a storm. He had heard on a broadcast that the South Pacific was stolen. At first he was persuaded by Fineberg not to use the transmitter but, finally, using crystals from another radio, he sent a Mayday call. The Royal New Zealand Air Force answered and Fineberg told him to say the boat was the Tiki 111, registered in

Maui, Hawaii. After that they got food and their position from the Nanchang. Fineberg persuaded him then to make for Tonga. Four days later he suggested that they stop eating, but Fineberg “threw one of his temper fits,” Roberts said. Arguments There was an argument and he told Fineberg that if Bobby locked sick or the food ran down to five days supply he was going to send a Mayday call. On the morning of June 19, after another argument over food, he went to 'leep. He woke with a “twanging” sensation in his head.

There was blood running over his face, but he propped himself up and saw Fineberg standing with a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other. It was about then he realised he had been stabbed. He put his fingers in the hole. Fineberg just stood there with a strange look in his eyes.

Roberts said he stood up and was dizzy, but reached over to a drawer and got a knife with a broken tip. He remembered saying: “What have you done?” and “Please, don’t hurt my son. Please, don’t kill Bobby.” Mayday Call Fineberg was just staring at him. He reached the radio and, switching it to transmit, began sending a Mayday call. He begged Fineberg to help him and told him there was probably a plane on the way. He told Fineberg he would say it was an accident. He would say anything if only he would help.- Finally Fineberg agreed and got the firstaid kit.

Roberts said he was getting weak but told Fineberg how to tune the radio receiver. Fineberg had said only one thing. Roberts wrote this down as he had other expressions he alleged Fineberg had used.

He asked Fineberg why he hal done it and Fineberg said: “1 don't know.”

The Mayday was answered by Auckland Radio after 45 minutes or an hour, he said. From then on, Fineberg was helpful. On the rescue ship Tongariro, Fineberg asked if he were going to stick to the story that it had been an accident, and said that he ought to for'Bobby’s sake. Roberts said he had no animosity towards Fineberg now, “except for the story he made up which I think is one of the worst things you could say about anyone. Assault Claim “According to what he has made up, I made an indecent move towards him, we got into a struggle and I slipped and fell on the knife, which is not true.

“I would like to have that cleared up at this trial. It is most important to me. It reflects on my character.” Mr • Patterson asked if Roberts had been convicted of attempted indecent assault on a boy. “Back in January I had a rental car in Auckland. It was used by about six people beside myself. “One of those people ap-

proached a boy outside a public toilet and made a remark to him. The boy took down the licence number and told his folks,. and the next thing I know is when I read in a newspaper I am being charged with an indecent offence.” Roberts said that he had pleaded not guilty and had wanted to appeal, but had been advised not to worry about a $lO fine. He denied ever saying that the trouble on the boat was that there was no sex, and that adult men could enjoy satisfaction. He denied ever touching the lower parts of Fineberg’s body. Roberts agreed that at first he had said that he had slipped while peeling potatoes. He had told the truth because he had been told that he might not survive. Crown Summary In his summary of the prosecution case, Mr Baragwanath outlined Roberts’s evidence, and submitted that a clear picture emerged which indicated that Fineberg had had enough of going short of food before the arrival of the Nanchang. When the Nanchang had given them provisions and they were on their way to Tonga he saw that food supplies were getting low again. The last straw came when Roberts again requested the accused to go without food to keep Bobby alive. "Tormented by the prospect of going hungry again, Fineberg worked himself up into such a state of passion he took a hammer and knife, went across to where Roberts was sleeping and struck Roberts with a hammer, attempting to knock him out, and the! stabbed him with a knife to finish him off.” Mr Baragwanath submitted that it was only un to this point of time that Fineberg’s intention was material. If the jury was satisfied that at this point of time he intended to cause Roberts’s death, then the accused was guilty of attempted murder. Mr Baragwanath submitted that only after all three were safely ashore and Roberts was receiving medical treatment that Fineberg made up the story of acting in selfdefence after an indecent assault by Roberts.

“I invite you to treat this story of an indecent assault as fabrication, as an afterthought, which he has dreamed un to rid himself of liability,” he said. Injuries Dr Dennis Tree, a surgeon, of Kaitaia, described the injuries received by Roberts. He said that Roberts was dangerously ill from loss of blood and infection of a wound 6jin deep in his right side. The wound could have been caused by the knife he was shown. Roberts also had a small wound above the eye and a fractured nose. In his opinion the stab wounj could not have been deliberately self-inflicted, and it was highly improbable that it had been accidentally inflicted.

It was most compatible with having been deliberately inflicted by another person, and with haying been caused as Roberts had described.