Kidnap ‘was to pay for Irishman’s trip home’

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 1

Kidnap ‘was to pay for Irishman’s trip home’

PA Auckland A / daughter : of a ’ bank manager told the Auckland District Court yesterday how she 1 was taken from her home on February 26 by a man. who said he wanted $120,000. The girl, aged 19, and whose name was supressed, said the man told her he owned a farm in Belfast and needed money to get out of New Zealand. She was giving evidence at a depositions hearing before Messrs L. Delowe and R. Henshall, Justices of the Peace.. .. . ’ Peter Miller Smith, aged 33, a commercial cleaner, of Onehunga, and Pauline Smith, aged 22, a clerk, of Sandringham, are charged with unlawfully detaining the girl with consent obtained by duress with intent to hold her for ransom.

Evidence from 28 witnesses will be given at the hearing. - Counsel (Mr M. H. W. Lance) has consented to the evidence of 23 witnesses being admitted without an appearance. The girl said she had gone to a dance at the Takapuna Rugby Club rooms on February 25 and had returned home about 12.20 a.m. the next . day. She told her father she was home, got something to eat, and went to bed. “The next thing 1 knew was I felt someone climbing over my bed. He said he was not there to rape me. I asked him what he was there for and he'said

he- wanted $120,000,” she told the Court. .

‘.‘He said.he wag,going to kidnap me and that he had a knife and I was. not to call out. He. said, he had a farm in. Belfast and he wanted, to .get back to Ireland and needed the money to get out of New Zealand.

“He said he .had nothing to lose as he was going to spend 14 years in jail any way.” - - The girl said the man told, her he knew where her father lived because he had followed : him home. He told her he had done research into bank managers. Hesaid it had been a-mam-moth task finding ' addresses, whether they had daughters' and whether they were suitable, she said.

“I was shaking at first but I calmed down after a while. He told me he was Irish. I think he . was in the house for about two hours. He had arrived about 3 a.m.” She said she got dressed and the man- had helped her out of the window.. They walked to a car. She said it crossed the harbour bridge and turned off at Ponsonby.

There they drove round looking for a telephone box. They found one in St Mary’s Road and she telephoned her father". The man had told her what to say. She told her father that she had been kidnapped and -that the man wanted ■

$120,000. Her . father ' did ’ not believe her at first. “After the call the man reminded me I had forgotten to tell Dad not to phone the police. So we phoned again and gave Dad the message.” ■■■■'■■ The girl said the car was then driven along Dominion Road.. She wps ■ then . blindfolded ' with '••a' scarf. After another 10 minutes drive she . was taken to a flat and led into a room where she was-told' she could take off the blindfold. • - She went to sleep and >; woke up about 8 a.m. She described ‘ the man as having .long hair; blue eyes and a big beard and moustache. He .was fair-skinned.

had a big build and a pot stomach and she thought; fie was about 40. She said, she stayed jn,the room all, day- except - ■ for. when she went to' the toilet. The man had men- . tibned a friend and later.*'.v referred to the friend as F “she”. ~ ■. / / \ She told of being taken 'f. out, blindfolded, in the car, after being awakened at 5 a.m. They met her father y who handed over a ransom. > ■ Barry • James Simpsop " told" the Court he had- a-, meal in a restaurant with; ' . Peter. Smith on February 21- . Smith had told him he ' - was thinking of kidnap- ; - ping, a bank manager’s = , daughter. , - ■ .