Lower Court Hearing Of Murder Charges Begins

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 9

Lower Court Hearing Of Murder Charge s Begins

A 19-year-old girl who returned from work to her home in Hawkins Road, Marshland, on January 22 found the doors all locked from the inside and the drapes drawn. Inside the house was her two-and-a-half-year-old baby daughter, a naked man bleeding from knife wounds and drugged, and the body of her mother who had been killed that morning, Mr J. D. Kinder. S.M.. was told in the Magistrate's Court yesterday.

Before him was Joseph Bernard McDonald, aged 55, a wool sorter, who is charged with the murder of Muriel Thelma Oliff, a widow, also aged 55, on January 22.

The taking of depositions in the Lower Court began yesterday when evidence from 11 of the 26 prosecution witnesses was heard. Appearing for the Crown is Mr R. A. Young, with htm Mr W. S. Smith, and McDonald is represented by Mr J, G. Leggat, with him Mr D. M. Palmer. Mr Young said that it would be the Crown’s case that there had been a struggle in Mrs Cliff’s bedroom, that she had been hit on the heed a number of blows with a blunt instrument which could have been a cold chisel which was found in her bed, that an attempt had then been made to strangle her with some doublewire electric flex, and that she had then been the subject of manual strangulation McDonald was found naked, lying on the floor of the hall outside the dead woman’s.

room when the police arrived. He was later admitted to Christchurch Hospital with lacerations of the right wrist and of both groins’ and also suffering from an overdose of drugs, Mr Young said. John Maynard Gilson, a surveyor. employed by the Department of Lands and Survey, said that on January 23 he went to the house at Hawkins Street and took measurements of the section and of the interior of the house from which he prepared two plans. In the bedroom where Mrs Oliff bad been found there were large patches of blood: on the floor beside the bed,! a patch on the wall beside l the dressing table, a large: patch on the wall at the head of the bed, and a patch about 18in by Bin on the ceiling above the bed. There was a trail of footprints in blood from the bedroom, across the hall into the bathroom, through the bathroom to the toilet and from there through the laundry to the kitchen. He said that some of the prints were quite clear while others were blurred skid marks, but "there appeared to be two sets really, going in opposite directions, in the kitchen.”

Photographs Produced William McDonald Ramage, a police photographer, pro-1 duced two sets of photographs, one of Mrs Oliff taken shortly after the body was found, and one of the bouse and its interior taken the next day. He said that in the hall there was a screwdriver, a length of electric flex, and a child’s broken bracelet These were near where McDonald was found.

There were also bloodstains on the toilet seat in the toilet bowl, and on the floor and one wall of the toilet i Averil June Swift a tele-, phonist employed by BlueStar Taxis, Ltd, said she' started work at 6.30 a.m. on: January 22. The first tele-! phone call she bad was at, 6.38 a.m. from a man who'

wanted a taxi from outside 854 Colombo Street to Hawkins Road in Marshland. She did not take the caller’s name. Lawrence Woodhouse Whittington, a taxi driver, said he went to the Colombo Street address where he picked up the defendant. McDonald had a small bag or satchel under his ann, and was dressed neatly in a dark suit light shirt and dark tie. Although he knew toe general area of Hawkins Road, he was not sure of its exact location, and on telling this to McDonald the latter had said it was up towards Prestons Road, Mr Whittington said. McDonald told him he had been there “a couple of times before at night time.” On the trip McDonald and he chatted about horses, and . McDonald said he had a full

brother of Manaroa in a paddock in Hawkins Road and was going there to meet a friend “to give delivery of lit,” Mr Whittington said. Looked at Horse McDonald told him to stop |at the intersection of Hawkins and Quaids Roads and after McDonald had paid the fare they both got out and looked at a young horse, about two years old, in the paddock. He left McDonald there about 7.20 a.m. and there was no-one else around. Brian James Entwistle, a freezing worker, said that he regularly went to work by way of Hawkins Road and on January 22 he was driving along Hawkins Road between 7.45 a.m. and 7.50 a.m. He saw the defendant standing in the grass at the corner of Hawkins and Quaids Roads reading a newspaper. “I noticed him because it

jis unusual for a fellow to stand there in this lonely country road,” said Mr Entwistle. McDonald appeared to have a briefcase or suitcase at his I feet he said. Alan James Gibson, a car salesman, said he owned an unraced horse which was grazed in the paddock at the corner of Hawkins and Quaids Roads. The paddock was owned by Mrs Oliff. “One time I went round to

> Mrs Cliff’s to pay for the grazing McDonald was there. s! It was in late November and s we got talking while Mrs 11 Oliff was writing a receipt ,!He asked me the breeding of 8 1 the horse and I told him that 5 j it was related to Manaroa. It • is not a full brother. He 1 seemed fairly impressed,” I said Mr Gibson. Daughter’s Evidence Joy Dorothy Oliff, aged 19, > the daughter of Mrs Oliff, said '■ she first met McDonald in i September, 1968, when her i mother brought him home from a dance. McDonald > started to stay week-ends at ! their home which was then lat 743 Hawkins Road. He l did the gardening and the ; dishes and -looked after the ■ fowls. During this time McDonald slept in the spare

room when he came to stay. That Christmas McDonald and her mother went to Ti- . maru for a week, coming home after New Year in 1969. i. From then on McDonald . lived with them permanently and shifted in with all His belongings. McDonald and her mother were then sleeping together and had a man and wife relationship, she said. In February last year her mother sold the house and

some of the land in Hawkins Road and shifted to Harewood ' Road while another house i was being built on the rest { of the land. I; McDonald shifted to Harewood Road with them and .iwas paying the rent there. 'Miss Oliff said her boyfriend, i Trevor Coney bear, came from Wellington at this time and

s he was also living at Hare > wood Road. McDonald ant . her mother went out aboui s two or three times a wee! either to a hotel or to g< - dancing. ! McDonald became more t possessive of her mother and > became very jealous if am I other man smiled at her oi • spoke to her, she said. He I accused her mother of going t out with other men and they would often argue. During an argument in ■ May last year she had tried tto intervene and McDonald ■ had raised his hand as if to 1 strike her. Her mother had • stopped him and he left the 1 house in a taxi to stay with a lady friend of his for about a : week, she said. , When he returned the relationship between him and | her mother continued and 1 when the new house was ready they all shifted to 777 ’ Hawkins Road. In October Mrs Oliff went : for a trip round the Pacific Islands with her sister and during this time, about three weeks, McDonald continued ,to live at Hawkins Street . with her. Coneybear and her two-year-old baby daughter, Miss Oliff said. Told “To Get Out” When Mrs Oliff returned, McDonald said he had met another woman and left the house, taking all his belongings with him. He was away for about two weeks and then started staying for week-ends again. After a while he was staying for longer than just the week-ends but was still paying for the flat in Colombo Street.

On January 6 McDonald and her mother went for a I walk and when they came ibacfc McDonald said “She’s told me to get out."

McDonald was very wild and threatened, to dig up the garden and do something to the tyres of Mrs OlifTs car. Miss Oliff said

He said to Mrs Oliff that r she “had gone up into the i hills and had intercourse 5 with a man named Vic and > then gone back to the dej fendant’s flat and had intert course with him,” said Miss Oliff. ) He called a taxi and left, > taking everything of his with . him and after that never I spent the night at Hawkins s Road again. About a week . later he had tea at Hawkins t Road, and on January 17 her t mother had told McDonald t over the telephone that there > was a big man who looked * like a policeman staying with them. There was no such person, Miss Oliff said. On the night of January ' 21, McDonald and her 1 mother went to a dance. She J made up a bottle of milk for ' her baby and supper for her- * self and went to bed about 8 p.m. She left a serrated - knife on the bench but there ‘ was no pill bottle cap on the ! bench when she went to bed, ’ said Miss Oliff. She heard ' her mother come in but did not know what time that was. She left the house at 7.15 ; aun. on January 22; leaving her baby asleep in her room J and her mother half asleep. * All of the drapes in the : house were closed and when she left all doors were locked . from the inside, Miss Oliff ! said.

Return To House She caught the 5.15 p.m. bus home after work and arrived home about 5.35 p.m. There was a letter and a postcard in the mailbox. It was unusual for them to still ibe there at that time of day. The drapes were still closed and all the doors were still locked, Miss Oliff said. The key to the french doors was not in the place her mother usually left it if she was going out. By looking in a gap between the drapes on the window of

:- her mother's bedroom she i could see a travel bag bet longing to McDonald. It had c not been there when she left , the house in the morning. “I banged on the window 3 and called: ‘Mum. Mum.’ But I there was no reply.,l was a . bit worried so I went across r the road to the neighbours; 1 , had left my hand-bag on the ' patio and after I told the J neighbour I couldn’t get in I went back to get it,” she said. . “I heard the telephone , ringing and when I went past my bedroom window I heard my wee girl calling out, ; ‘Mummy, mummy.’ I got a ' box and stood on it and talked to her. She pulled the 1 curtain open and 1 told her to open the window. She ’ managed to do that and I sat on the window ledge. ; “From there I could see ; into the hallway. There was a naked body there. He was lying on his stomach, trying ; to push himself up. I got a • ftight and grabbed my wee 1 girl, pulled her through the • window and ran across the [ road,” said Miss Oliff. Chisel Identified She said her daughter had been in a. nightdress when she had left the house in the morning, but was dressed in a dress and cardigan when she pulled her through the ■ window. “She could not have dressed herself,” said Miss Oliff. Miss Oliff identified a cold chisel as having belonged to i her father, who died in 1968. The chisel was usually kept with other tools in a cardboard box in the kitchen. She said that on January 19 she had not felt well and gone home early. There was a man, aged about 30, at home with her mother. The man, known to her as “Pat,” had taken her mother out before about two months previously, she said. < McDonald was in the habit of handing most of his money

" I ■ to -Mrs- Oliff .while he was ■ living there, Miss. Oliff said, I Police Constable lan David : McEldowney said he was sent to the Hawkins Road address ' of Mrs Oliff where, after . speaking to Miss Oliff, he t climbed in through the bed- : room window from which . Miss Oljff had* seen the man i in the half. Found Body The man lying in the hail ' was the defendant. He was naked except for a pair of ’ socks, a wrist watch and a • ring. There was blood on his. body and on the floor be- ' neath him. He was trembling and making'moaning sounds; Underneath McDonald he could see a length of electric Bex, a screwdriver, and part of a child's bracelet, said Constable McEldowney. In the other bedroom he found the body of Mrs Oliff on a double bed. She was lying on her back with her arms outstretched. There was no sign of life.. He left the bouse and radioed for an ambulance and the C. 1.8. Trevor flay Coneybear, an electrical contractor, said he knew both McDonald and Mrs Oliff through his association with Miss OJiff and had lived with than for a period. I He described an argument between McDonald and Mrp O'iff over 8 ntan' named “Pat,” and a telephone conversation he had had with McDonald. During this Me-: Donald had told him to tell Mrs Oliff that he was going to give her a bad name round Warner’s Hotel, Mr Coneybear said. Mr Coneybear said that arguments between McDonald and Mrs Oliff became more frequent after they moved : into the house at 777 Hawkins Road and occurred after about • a third of the occasions they 1 went out. They went out ' two or three times a week, , he said. 1 The bearing will continue today. i