Thomas questioned

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32542, 27 February 1971, Page 3

Thomas questioned

(N.Z, Press Association) AUCKLAND, Feb. 26. Arthur Allan Thomas was asked in the Supreme Court at Auckland today whether he had any enemy or knew of anyone who hated him enough for them to try to put the blame for the murders of Mr and Mrs David Harvey Crewe on to him.

Thomas, who is accused of murdering Mr and Mrs Crewe in their Pukekawa farmhouse on June 17 last

year, was asked the question in cross-examination by the Crown prosecutor, Mr D. S. Morris.

He answered, “No.” Thomas, a 32-year-old Pukekawa farmer, is charged that on or about June 17 at Pukekawa he murdered David Harvey Crewe, and that on or about the same day he murdered Jeanette Lenore Crewe at Pukekawa. Mr Morris, with him Mr W. D. Baragwanath, appears for the Crown, Mr P. B. Temm, Q.C., with him Mr B. Q. Webb, for Thomas.

The trial is before Mr Justice Henry and a jury of eight men and four women. In cross-examination by Mr Morris, resumed today, Thomas agreed that the watch produced yesterday in court was the one he was Wearing when arrested. Thomas said the watch was two to three years old. He had bought it from a friend named Jim Connelly about three years ago.

To Mr Morris he said he seldom wore a watch. He also had a broken watch at home which he never wore around the farm.

Turning to the accused’s rifle, Mr Morris said that Thomas’s cousin had suggested the rifle was kept in his (Peter’s) room. Thomas said the rifle was not kept in any particular place. The bedroom was one of three places in. the hduse where the rifle was kept. AMMUNITION

Mr Morris: Detective Jblinston asked you' for all the ammunition you had. A later police search showed you hadn’t given him all the ammunition. Was it pure oversight?—l just grabbed the box of bullets, which I normally use. It was handy. Mr Morris asked Thomas if, when he saw a photograph of a trailer in the newspaper, he knew it was connected with the inquiry. Thomas said he did. He had followed the case with some interest in the newspapers. Mr Morris asked Thomas if he had gone to the police about it when he saw the trailer looked something like one his father used to have.

“I wasn’t sure enough.” Turning to Thomas’s evidence that he had dumped some rubbish, including wire, in the Tuakau tip, Mr Morris asked him if he was suggesting that some of that wire • somehow got tied to the body of Harvey Crewe. “That’s a possibility.” Thomas said he went to the dump in March or April; of last year. Mr Morris: Are you suggesting that axle got to the place it did (the Waikato River) by accident?—lt could have done.

Mr Morris: You went further than that when you were seen by Detective-Inspector Hutton. You suggested someone had framed you.

Thomas said he was in Mr Hutton’s office and was shown his rifle, which had a pack of bullets on the rifle guard, and some wire alongside the rifle. In the office next door he was shown the stub axles and the axle. Thomas said Mr Hutton asked him: “It all came off your farm Arthur, what do you say about that?” “I said it looked like someone had come on to my farm at night, or at the week-end, and taken it.” Thomas said Mr Hutton then asked: “Do you mean you were framed?” Thomas said he replied“lf that’s the word you use, I have been framed.” To Mr Morris he said he did not know of any enemy who hated him enough to do that. . WIFE’S EVIDENCE

Vivien Susan Thomas, the wife of the accused, told the Court that she and her husband were at home on the night the Crewes are alleged to have been killed.

She said her husband rang from the implements shed about 5 p.m. to say that a cow with paralysis to the back legs was trying to calve and asked her to cone and help him. ’ ■

She said it took some time to calve the cow, and she went back to the house about 7 p.m. She said that Peter Thomas, her husband’s cousin was at the house when she got back.

Her husband came into the house about 15 to 20 minutes later. '

She said they received a telephone call from a Mrs Jeanette Thomas who offered them a lift to a ratepayers’ meeting. They had nothing scheduled for that night, she said. Her husband helped her with the dishes and had a bath. She thought they watched television and went to bed about 9.15 or 9.30 p.m. They had not heard about the missing couple then. She said she had first heard of the missing couple on the evening of Monday, June 22, when a stock agent rang. Her sister-in-law rang later that evening and her husband answered the phone. She said her husband came back and told her that a girl with whom he had gone to school, Jeanette Demler, and her husband, were missing. COW SHOT Referring to a notebook produced in Court, Mrs Thomas said her husband shot cow No. 4 on June 23 because it had paralysis.

Mr Webb asked Mrs Thomas if she remembered having a discussion with hei husband in the garden on October 21—the day a police party searched their house and tip. Mr Webb told Mrs Thomas that a Detective Keith had said in evidence he overheard her husband say: “If they think I'm guilty I am, and that’s that.” Mrs Thomas said she had no recollection of her husband saying that. She told Mr Webb that she and her husband slept in a double bed. She said she was a reasonably light sleeper, and if her husband had left the bed, she would have known.

Cross-examined by Mr Baragwanath, she said she had discussed the case on many occasions with her husband and solicitors. She agreed that the discussions with her husband concentrated on his movements on the night of June 17. Mr Baragwanath asked when she first discussed with her husband his movements on June 17. Mrs Thomas said that it was about a week after. Mr Baragwanath: What brought the topic up?—lt was not particularly my husband’s movements, but all our movements. Mr Baragwanath asked Mrs Thomas if she had heard her husband' say, “we’re all right, we were at home” during a conversation about their movements. “No, I’m sorry—so much has happened since then." RECORD SHEET Asked what sort of time lag there was between a birth and a record of it on the shed sheet, Mrs Thomas said the entry was made on the same day, but occasionally it could be left to the next day if things were busy. Mr Baragwanath: Inspector Hutton said you told him you had not kept the shed sheet up to date—l don’t think I would have said that because it would not have been true. She said cow No. 4 calved on June 17.

Mr Baragwanath: How long after was it shot?—On June 23, six days. Mr Baragwanath: Did you on October 25 tell Detective Johnston the cow was destroyed two days and not six days after calving?—l cannot remember. Mrs Thomas referred to a statement she had made to the police on October 25 and agreed that she had said cow No. 4 had been shot two days after it had calved. Mrs Thomas said she regularly wore slacks round the farm. She said she drove a light green, 1965 Hillman car and described her hair as dark brown. She said that on Friday, June 19, at 9.30 a.m.—the time a woman with light brown hair and wearing slacks was seen on the Crewe farm —she was probably doing housework. She did not remember what her husband was doing. The trial will continue on Monday.