‘Mr Asia’ case to be tried in Jan.

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 4

‘Mr Asia’ case to be tried in Jan.

NZPA correspondent Preston, England The “Mr Asia” trial will be held at Lancaster in January. The date and the venue for the trial of the three New Zealanders and nine Britons charged in the drugs-murder case was set after a 90minute hearing in the Preston Crown Court yesterday, by the northern circuit presiding judge, Mrs Justice Rose Heilbron. Mrs Justice Heilbron, who will also preside at the trial, said she was showing "considerable indulgence” in allowing certain defence counsel so much time to prepare their case and while she could not stop any application for a further delay one would pot be favourably received. No specific starting date has been set for the trial but counsel yesterday said they would be ready by January 1, a Thursday and a public holiday, and the trial is there-

fore likely to start on Monday, January, 5. It is expected to last a minimum of six weeks and a maximum of 10. The case follows the brutal killing last October of the former Auckland drug boss, Martin Johnstone, aged 27, and the unravelling of what the police allege is a big international drug ring. The widely expected decision to try the case in the security of the Lancaster Crown Court followed Mrs Justice Heilbron’s rejection of the plea by a New Zealander, (Terrence) Alexander Sinclair, aged 34, to have the trial anywhere outside the Lancashire police district. Sinclair allegedly “sanctioned, probably ordered” the killing of his friend and alleged former partner and is charged with murder and conspiring to murder with four Britons, including a former Auckland resident, Andrew Maher, aged 26. The other two New Zealanders, Karen Mary Soich,

aged 24, and Erroll Hincksman, aged 31, face six counts of conspiring to import and supply cannabis, cocaine, and heroin with the five accused of murder and four other Britons. The twelfth accused, Sylvester Pidgeon, is charged only with conspiring to import and supply cocaine. All the accused were present at the hearing. Making Sinclair’s plea for a change of venue, his acting counsel, Mr John Nutting, said his case had been damaged by “saturation” publicity in the “Lancashire Evening Post” late last year between when the first defendants were arrested by the Lancashire police and their first appearance in court on November 5. He also accused the Lancashire police of “an excess of zeal on the part of some individual officers which has created an atmosphere which makes it preferable that the trial be held outside the Lancashire police district.”