SUPREME COURT Trial Of Farmer On Charge Of Murder Continues

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31539, 29 November 1967, Page 13

SUPREME COURT Trial Of Farmer On Charge Of Murder Continues

At the time the Crown says that John Alexander Ramsay, a 24-year-old Waihaorunga farmer, had the body of Gillian Margaret Thompson, wrapped in a horse cover, in the boot of his car. Ramsay was having a New Year drink with farm neighbours named Mehrtens, on whom he had called to borrow petrol.

Evidence of Ramsay’s visit to Mehrtens’ farm about 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day was given in the Supreme Court at Christchurch yesterday by William John Martin Mehrtens, who described how be had “shouted” for Ramsay, and stood by while Ramsay had poured four gallons of petrol into his car, parked on the Serpentine Valley Road. Ramsay had explained blood on his face by saying he had been in a fight at the Waimate piecart, Mr Mehrtens said. Ramsay (Mr B. J. Drake) is standing a second trial, before Mr Justice Macarthur and a jury, on a charge of the murder of Miss Thompson, aged 17, who disappeared from tier home in Waimate on New Year’s Eve. Ramsay pleads not guilty. There was increased public attendance in the gallery yesterday. At one stage, during the morning session, both Ramsay's wife and his mother-in-law, Mrs Trevathan, were present. Ramsay himself again followed the evidence from the typescript of his first trial, and frequently wrote notes which he passed forward to his counsel.

Twenty-six Crown witnesses have now given evidence in the case, which will continue today. Three weeks after her disappearance, and after perhaps the biggest police search ever mounted in New Zealand, the body of Miss Thompson, fully clothed but with the mouth gagged, was found down a 30ft offal shaft on Ramsay’s farm on the Elephant Hill Back Road, 14 miles inland from Waimate. Accused’s Statement

Ramsay, describing in his own statement —read against him by the Crown Prosecutor, Mr R. C. Savage (Wellington), on the opening day of the trial —how he had struck Miss Thompson on the head with a beer bottle, after picking her up in his car early on New Year’s Day, went on to say:

“I took her put of the car and put her in the boot. 1 must have bit her again. .

There was an old horse cover in the boot, and I pulled that over her. I locked it I went down to Mehrtens’ and knocked on the door. I had blood on my face. . . .” Mr Mehrtens, in his evidence, said that Ramsay arrived at his farmhouse about 3 a.m., saying that be had run out of petrol on the way home, and stayed talking half to three-quarters of an hour.

Mr Mehrtens said he noticed blood, from a short, deep cut, on Ramsay’s left cheek, and skin off the back of his right hand. After wishing Ramsay “compliments of the season,” and producing a bottle of beer, Mr Mehrtens said that his wife gave Ramsay cotton wool, with which he wiped his face, and from time to time dabbed it as he sat talking. “Quite Normal” Ramsay’s appearance and manner, said witness, were “quite normal.” He seemed wide awake, and gave no im; pression of having had tod much to drink. It was daylight when Ramsay left, said witness. He had got petrol for Ramsay, and stood by while Ramsay broke out the bottom of an old sherry bottle to use as a funnel and poured the petrol into his car, the vent being underneath the boot. But witness said he had not looked into Ramsay’s car. It was now about 4 a.m., said Mr Mehrtens. Ramsay started the car engine, and witness picked up his petrol can, said good-bye, and walked back up the side road to his farm. When 50 yards up the the road he heard Ramsay drive off.

To Mr Savage, witness said he had not looked back to see what Ramsay might be doing meantime. He thought he would have heard if a door had been opened and shut. Mr Drake: There was nothing to suggest Ramsay had been in a fight or struggle with anybody?—Only from what he told us. But, said witness, he had wondered how Ramsay had cut his face. Approach To Police Evidence that Ramsay had telephoned the Waimate police on January 6 to report having seen Miss Thompson in the main street of Waimate early oh New Year’s Day was given by Constable A. G. Jones, of Waimate. Detective Constable B. A. Ramsay said that as a result of this information, he interviewed Ramsay on January 8. Ramsay had said, in a statement, that he did not know Miss Thompson, but at 12.15 a.m. on New Year’s Day had seen a girl in duffel coat and slacks [clothing which other witnesses have said Miss Thompson was wearing] walking up the main street of Waimate, by the office of Waimate Transport, Ltd. Ramsay had detailed his own movements on New Year's Eve, and described getting into a fight with a man near the Waimate piecart. Ramsay had said the man had hit him, cutting his face with a ring on the man’s finger. Detective Senior-Sergeant C. R. Cotterell (Dunedin) gave evidence of sighting Ramsay's car—a light-coloured Zephyr vehicle with one headlight shining with an orange glow —in Waimate on Saturday evening, January 21, and asking Ramsay to go to the Waimate police station. “Appeared Nervous”

Ramsay had appeared nervous, said witness, and had a triangular cut on the left cheek showing yen' plainly, his face being “quite white."

Mr Drake: At that stage he had quite a healthy tan, didn’t he? Witness: He looked white to me. Detective Senior-Sergeant E T. Mitten described his taking of a second statement from Ramsay in the Waimate police station that night. Ramsay had made a detailed statement —read to the court —in which he traversed his movements on New Year’s Eve, including the visit to Mehrtens’ farm, but ended by saying: “Gillian Thompson has never been in my car.” Detective-Sergeant R. A. Meikle (Ashburton) gave evidence of the recovery of Miss Thompson’s body from the offal shaft on Ramsay’s farm, and of examination of clothing during the post-mortem examination at the Timaru Hospital. Detective Sergeants Cotterell, Mitten, and Meikle were all cross-examined at some length by Mr Drake on the aspect that Ramsay had not been under formal arrest at the Waimate Police Station on January 21 but had been “free to go”—as Mr Mitten said—at any time. It was conceded, however, that Ramsay’s car—being used for tests in Sleigh Street, Waimate—had not been available to him. Medical Evidence The rest of yesterday’s hearing was occupied by medical evidence given by Dr L. A. Faigan, a Timaru pathologist, who detailed his findings in a post-mortem analysis of Miss Thompson’s body. The state of decomposition of the girl’s body was consistent with death three weeks previously. Dr Faigan said. He considered her death was due to asphyxia, associated with a sub-dural haemorrhage of

the brain, which had been caused by a fracture of the skull.

Such fracture, said Dr Faigan, would have been caused by a heavy, blunt instrument, but with sharp edges. “In my opinion, the gag was inserted in the girl’s mouth either after she was dead, or in a very profound state of coma,” he said. If in a state of coma, the gag could have been a cause of asphyxia—“in five minutes, at the most,” Dr Faigan said. Mr Drake, asking Dr Faigan to assume 'that Miss Thompson’s death occurred not very long before her body was dropped into the offal shaft—and pointing to evidence indicating the body's free fall for 30ft, head foremost—inquired whether he had ever conducted a postmortem after similar circumstances. Dr Faigan said he had not. Mr Drake: Then you are drawing your conclusions not from your Own experiences, but from the text-books? Witness: Not entirely so. One sees injuries which have been inflicted on dead bodies, in a number of other situations, which produce postmortem wounds, and one learns to recognise these. Dr Faigan was asked if it were not usual, in such cases as the present, for the accused to be given the opportunity of having his own medical adviser present at the postmortem examination. Dr Faigan said he was unaware of it. Dr Faigan was still under cross-examination when the trial was adjourned to this morning.