Thomas appeal adjourned

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33625, 29 August 1974, Page 3

Thomas appeal adjourned

(New Zealand Prest Association)

AUCKLAND, August 28.

The Court of Appeal hearing of new evidence in defence of Arthur Thomas had been adjourned indefinitely, the chairman of the Arthur Thomas Re-Trial Committee (Mr Pat Vesey), announced today.

The hearing had been set down for four days from September 24, but this fixture will not now go ahead.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the terms of referral require extension to allow it to examine relevant material that was not necessarily before the GovernorGeneral when the appeal was lodged. The Crown has maintained that it requires more time to examine fresh material, which was the basis of the referral.

Mr Vesey expressed deep concern at the further delay to consideration of the new facts, and appealed for maximum effort from Crown Law Office and police investigators to get the hearing to the court as soon as possible. This adjournment was only the most recent of a number of delays which have pre-

vented judicial examination of the evidence first disclosed in the “Auckland Star” more than a year ago. “When the Minister of Justice (Dr Finlay) referred several months ago to a suggestion that the defence had had a year to prepare its case, and it was reasonable that the Crown had some time to examine it, he was over-simplifying,” .Mr Veseysaid.

“The actual facts are that defence attempts to lodge this appeal have been frustrated for much of that year After police and forensic experts took, for example, nearly two months to prepare a detailed response to the first Booth-Sprott submissions, consistent pressure was needed to get access to that report, ana later again to key exhibits, while the Crown stipulated who should examine these exhibits and where.

“With, all its resources, the Crown should be able and willing to press ahead and get this matter before the court,” he said.