Police reject report of Crewe farm fire

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 10

Police reject report of Crewe farm fire

PA Wellington. The police have discounted a report of a fire on the Crewe farm as having no bearing on the murder inquiry concerning Arthur Allan Thomas. This was said in a state ment by the Auckland Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mr J. W. Overton), the text of which was released at polio headquarters in Wellington. “Police, records reveal that an eight-year-old Pukekawa boy made a statement to the police on June 24, 1970, which he said that while travelling past the Crewe farm in his father’s car on Friday night (June 19, 1970), he saw what he considered was a fire near the woolshed which was approximately 100 metres away from the Crewe home. “The,' boy did not see any person there,” said the Statement. “He told his father, who was driving the car in which he was travelling, but the father did not see the fire. “It is assumed this is the case (the Arthur Allan Thomas campaigners) Messrs J. Sprott and P. Booth refer to,” said the statement, referring to a report in the Auckland “Star” newspaper. “The father later told the police that he considered his son had mistaken the distant lights of Tekauwhata as being a fire. “A police search was

made but there was no sign of any fire having been lit in the area. The boy’s father also checked the area without finding any trace of the fire. “The report was consic ■red and discounted a laving no bearing on th nquiry,” said the statnent. “The police have n Knowledge of any repo of statements by anyon that sparks were see coming from the chimne; of the Crewe home, as re ported in the Aucklarx ‘Star’ on June 27 (1978). “If Dr Sprott and M: Booth have any information of a fire burning inside the Crewe house at the time, it is surprising they failed to provide positive information to the police in -the first instance but have made public statements which, to' the best of our knowledge, have no foundation in fact." But in Auckland the parents of the boy who claimed to have- Jteeij sparks coming from the Crewe property are convinced of their son’s sighting. Mrs Jocelyn Fleming said: “He is a truthful sort of a child. We had no reason to doubt what he had seen.” After bloodstains were found in the Crewe house, the police and Mr Fleming searched the area but found no signs of a fire. Although the child had

caught only a quick glimpse of the sparks, he md his father thought it relevant and reported it to lie police. After studying the line f sight later, the boy and is father thought the 'arks could have come om the chimney. Remains of a fire in hich the hearth rug had een burnt were found on le grate inside the house. Thomas campaigners ay the “crucial” evidence f the fire given to the jolice only six days after he crewe murders has been withheld from all julicial hearings. Det,ail supporting the i&w evidence was confirmed this week on the eve of next week’s Privy Council consideration of a petition from Thomas dealing with cartridge case evidence researched by Dr Sprott and Mr Booth. Mr Booth says that whether the fire was inside the house or outside does not take from the clear indication that someone was at the house. The reconstruction which the Crown presented to the two Thomas juries did not allow for a sequence in which the murderer returned to the house that night. Arlthur Thomas and his wife, Vivien, were out of Pukekawa at a birthday party for his sister in Pukekohe from about 7.30 p.m. until after midnight on the Friday night.