‘Hit man’ paid $250,000 to murder N.Z. couple

Press, 24 April 1980, Page 1

‘Hit man’ paid $250,000 to murder N.Z. couple

NZPA Melbourne i A “hit man” was paid $250,000 to travel from , Perth to Melbourne to kill ' the New Zealanders, Douglas and Isabel Wilson, last year, a witness I told the Coroner’s , Court at Melbourne yesterday. The witness has been described by the Melbourne “Age” newspaper i as a former Auckland kindergarten teacher, but in ' court she was identified only as Miss X. Her name and present address were : suppressed on the order of the Coroner, Mr K. ■Mason, S.M. She is the main police witness.

Miss X was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of the Wilsons, whose bullet-riddled ' bodies were found in a : shallow grave at Rye ’ Beach, near Melbourne, on Mav 18, 1979. The Court had previously been told by De- ! tective Chief Inspector Paul Delianis, of the Melbourne Homicide Souad, ' that the Wilsons had been > murdered on the command ! of Terrence John Clark, aged 35, the leader of a huge drug ring of which

the Wilsons were members.

The executions, which occurred at Melbourne on Good Friday, April 13, last year, had been ordered after the Wilsons talked to the Brisbane police about the organisation, which had brought heroin worth at least $lOO million into Australia. Clark had used several different aliases, including Terrence Alexander Sinclair, the name under which he had been charged by the British police with the murder of the drug syndicate’s other main leader, Christopher Martin Johnstone, otherwise known as “Mr Asia.” Johnstone’s mutilated body was found on October 16 last year in a water-filled disused ouarry at Chorley, in Lancashire. Miss X said that Terrence Clark had told her last April that the Wilsons were dead. She said that Clark told her thev had been lured to Melbourne to make a drug deal with the hit man. In. mid-1978 Clark had paid $250,000 for some tape-recordings the Wilsons had made. Miss X

said that she believed that Clark had paid the money to a Brisbane police officer. The tapes were of the Wilsons’ interview with the Brisbane police. Miss X, who entered the court with a police guard, said that she went to Sydney from Auckland in September, 1976, with a man named Wayne Shrimpton, who introduced her to Phillip Scott, whom she now knew to be Terrence Clark.

She told the Court how she had acted as a courier for the organisation, taking a total of $215,000 to Singapore on three separate trips. She had also once carried heroin from New Zealand for the usual $lOOO fee. She said that she met Johnstone, the organisation’s original leader, in Singapore, where he used four legal companies “to launder, the drugs money.” Miss X said that the network was highly organised, and took elaborate precautions, including:

— Couriers were given valium capsules to calm their nerves before going through Customs;

— Dirty clothing was packed against the false bottom of couriers’ suitcases to discourage Customs officers from searching too closely; — Heroin was packed in plastic rubbish bags and buried in the bush near marked trees; —Couriers stayed overseas for seven to 10 days, posing as tourists; — Suitcases with false bottoms were constantly improved, the best being ones in which blocks of heroin were placed between wooden slats coated with plastic and fibreglass, making them “completely dog-proof”;

— Women couriers were encouraged to dress in-sophisticated clothing. ; Miss X said that Clark was arrested in Brisbane in mid-1978. He was extradited to New Zealand, where he spent six months in jail before being acquitted on a charge of importing heroin.

During this period she kept in touch with Clark and helped run the syndicate’s activities, organising couriers to make drug runs between Australia,

New Zealand, South-East Asia, and' Britain. Miss X said that she preferred to use women as couriers, but yesterday she identified several men from photographs shown to her.

They included men she identified as Jimmy Shepherd, lan Henry, Peter Fulcher, Patrick Bennett, Andrew Maher, Martin Johnstone, -.nd one called Jack, whom she said was her Singapore connection. Among her couriers, she said, were women called Kay Reynolds, Julie Thielman, Wendy Shrimpton, and Marian French.

She told the Court how she had ;sent coded messages for her drug couriers travelling overseas She would get in touch with “the Singapore connection” and’ tell him that her three cousins were coming for a holiday. He in turn would tell her that he would have Christmas presents for them. This meant that, the three women couriers were taking cash in suitcases and that the present was heroin.

The Singapore connection, ' in turn, would

give them money for Miss

Referring to one such “drug run,” Miss X said: “I rang Jack in Singapore and told him three of my cousins were coming up for a visit.”

She gave the girls $lOOO spending money and when she followed them she took with her about $250,000 in $5O notes as payment for the people in Singapore. She said that Jack and a man called John Chattenden were becoming extremely annoyed with Johnstone, who was known as Marty. Jack believed that Marty was keeping money for himself, and although he asserted that he was paying his ' workers, they complained they had been waiting months for payment.

Marty had also asserted that the money had been miscounted in Sydney, and that it was short when it arrived in Singapore. Miss X said that she took particular care that the money was correct. Marty was becoming lazy and it was believed he was “making out on his

own and shipping money to Hong Kong.” “It was believed that Marty was going to abandon the business and was building up a nice little nest egg.” She said that she and the three others had returned from Singapore to Brisbane using false names. They travelled separately and met up later. On Christmas Day, 1978, she travelled by plane to New Zealand with Wendy Shrimpton, carrying suitcases packed with heroin. She said that they took the suitcases to a hotel room and later a man called Dennis -arrived and took them away to be broken up. Miss X said that both she and Wendy Shrimpton were detained by the police, and questioned about the suitcases.

They later pleaded guilty to a charge of entering New Zealand under false names, and were each fined $BO. Some time after her return to Australia a man called Bob Jones told her that Clark was in Britain

and was • very concerned about her welfare.

Jones ! arranged to have two photographs taken for passport purposes. These were of herself and a restaurateur. called ■ Roberto • Fiona. ' . • . •

She was . photographed wearing a wig and spectacles, and used the name Blackburn on her passport.

Miss X said that she arrived in London about June, and there met members of the organisation including Clark, Jimmy Shepherd, and a man whose name was suppressed yesterday.

She said that Clark wanted her out of the organisation, “because I had become such a risk I could not move.”

It was suggested that she go to the United States and other overseas areas for about six months. She left London for Greece in July, 1979, and expressed her fears to Roberto Fiona, who was accompanying her after being her companion on the flight from Australia to London.