New claim in Crewe case

Press, 9 August 1976, Page 6

New claim in Crewe case

’A Auckland The Auckland analyst, Dr T. J. Sprott, believes he has new evidence connected with the Crewe murders and the Crown case against Arthur Allan Thomas.

Dr Sprott said yesterday that the evidence was about the car axle which was tied to the body of Harvey Crewe, found in the Waikato River.

Thomas is serving a life sentence for the murder of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe at Pukekawa in June, 1970. Dr Sprott said the axle was the linchpin in the Crown case against Thomas a farmer, of Pukekawa. There were witnesses who would sav they removed the axle from the Thomas property five years before the double murder and dumped it near a house five miles away.

They were young men who had taken the axle to rebuild an old car. There had been some dispute about whether the axle was suitable, and finally it was dumped. One of the witnesses was a mechanic.

Dr Sprott said he would petition the GovernorGeneral (Sir Denis Blundell) about the matter. He hoped the Govemor-

General would refer the new evidence to an independent tribunal of experts.

However, if the Governor-General approved the most likely course would be that the new evidence would be referred to the Minister of Justice, who would refer it to the Court of Appeal.