The Mr. Asia case Sinclair a ‘crook,’ nanny tells hearing

Press, 31 May 1980, Page 6

The Mr. Asia case Sinclair a ‘crook,’ nanny tells hearing

Special correspondent A New Zealand man facing charges of murder and drugs conspiracy is alleged to have told a former female employee that if his wife left him he would have her killed. . v The man, Alexander James Sinclair, also known as Terrence John Clark, is said to have told a woman he employed as a child minder that he (Sinclair) would be far away when the crime wag committed. Giving evidence on the eighth day of the murderdrugs court hearing at Chor16y, Lancashire, was Mrs Argentina Mary Colaco, a 45-year-old Indian woman. Looking nervous and speaking with a quivering voice she told the court how she had been employed by Sinclair to look after his 16-month-old son; . She told of moving to various addresses and detailed events at Sinclair’s flat in Kensington. She told of visits to the flat from a man called Martin who she. described as being tall with beautiful blue eyes and a moustache. She said he was a cool-looking, .hardened iman.

She also described another New Zealand man, Mr Jimmy McDonald as. being a .well-dressed dapper, man who often telephoned Sinclair and went to his various flats for breakfast dr lunch. Mrs Colaco said she told a Mr Stevens (Hincksman) that she suspected “Mr Terry” of being a criminal and that she would tell the polite about him, and that she didn’t want to continue working for Mr Sinclair. Stevens went and told .Sinclair’s wife, Maria. According to Mrs Colaco

Sinclair had hit his wif6 that night. He later told her that he would kill Maria if she 16ft him and he would pay someone else to do it and that he would be miles away when he was fiddling with ted.. Mrs Colaco . said . she thought Sinclair was a “crook” and she told Of occasionally disturbing him when she was fiddling - with packages in his bedroom. On two occasions when this happened Mrs Colaco said: “He was pushing something under the quilt on the bed and he looked at me.with a guilty expression and a frightened look.” . She told of packages being pushed under the bed and on top of a cupboard where she could not reach them, and of how Sinclair appeared nervous and frightened whenever she saw them or saw him handling them. Mrs Colaco told of ’business conferences” in the front room of Sinclair’s Kensington flat and said that the door was always locked from the inside and that she had to knock before entering. Mrs Colaco said she suspected the men at the business conferences — Sinclair, Jim McDonald, Mr Stevens and the chauffeur — of being homosexuals because they always .kept the door locked for their business conferences.

She never found out what was in the packages but said they, contained a- soft substance.--' ■

The packages were brought into the places where Sinclair was staying by Martin and Jimmy McDonald and were carped out by Sinclair when he went to the laundry with .washing?' Mrs Colaco-said she once saw a . passport lying on a

table with some ink remover. The photograph was missing? “I said to Mr Terry ‘You shouldn’t leave things like that on the table.’ He had a frightened look and a guilty expression on his face and he was very annoyed with me after that.” .She went on to tell how, when staying with Sinclair’s sister in Sussex, she took photographs of the house and the people who were there including Sinclair, Maria and Jimmy ' McDonald sitting round a table. Mrs Colaco said she wanted to send, the photographs back to her family in Bombay. However, Jimmy McDonald later snatched the camera from her and rfi-; tilrned it with a frOsh film. : : Mrs Colaco said she; was, paid £4O a week to look after: the flat and the child and dh the fifth week, her last in Sinclair’s employment, she was paid £45. Sinclair used to give her tips which amounted to about £l5O. She said she had seen McDonald in a Rolls Royce in Kensington High Street and as, she was crossing the rdad he waved at her. \ Mrs Colaco had earlier re--ferred to McDonald as a “prominent man” and someone had said he was the person who had made Mr Tdrry a millionaire. . The prosecution yesterday reversed its decision not to call the New Zealand woman, Allison Raewyn Dine, to the witness stand. > The' police counsel, .Mr ; John Mantell, Q.C., had; earlier told '■ the court the' former Auckland kinder-,’ garten teacher, Whb?tha;, police say was a Jedding; courier for the drugs syndic cate, would hot be but yesterday he said; “We have changed our minds,” He offered no further explanation.