Accused battered man to death, poured paint over head — Crown

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 4

Accused battered man to death, poured paint over head — Crown

After drinking for most of the day two unemployed young men attacked a 62-year-old hairdresser in the shop which he was renovating in Lincoln Road, tied his hands behind his back, battered him about the head with lengths of timber and then poured paint -over his head because they, wanted to convert' his car, .Mr Justice Roper and a jury were told in the High Court yesterday. Warrep James . Korkin, aged 23, and Raymond Bremner Fryer, aged 20, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Geroge Frankley Carrodus, aged 62, a hairdresser in a shop in Lincoln Road on the evening of Thursday, February 21. The trial is expected to take at least eight days. The Crown is calling; 34 witnesses.- Detective Senior-Ser-geant Malvin Douglas, Griebel is the officer in charge of the case. z, ■ ’

Messrs R. L. Kerr and B. M. Stanaway appear for the Crown, Messrs R. J. Murfitt and B. J. Ching for Corkin, and Messrs K. N. Hampton and S. C. Barker for Fryer.

Before the trial began on the murder charges Corkin

and. Fryer pleaded guilty to, a charge of unlawfully taking' the 1972 Subaru car, valued 1 at $3500, the property of Mr Carrodus. They were remanded ini custody to a date to be fixed for sentence on that charge. Opening the Crown case, Mr Kerr said that for 14 years Mr Carrodus had occupied a hairdresser’s shop at 346 Lincoln Road, opposite the Lion Tavern. Unfortunately for him the block of shops were to be demolished so he obtained another shop 300 yards further along Lincoln Road on the opposite. side of the road at number 287. During February he was redecorating the shop in the evenings before moving into it. During February Mr Carrodus was working in his. old shop during the day, going home for tea and then doing renovations in his new shop in the evening. On the day of his death he followed that routine and parked his car outside the shop. He spoke to another hairdresser, Mr Graeme Leslie Jones, outside the shop for a. few minutes, and then went into it about 8.10 p.m. Corkin and Fryer spent the

dav drinking, starting at the iLion Tavern at 11 a.m. with Albert Kaye with whom they were boarding at 108 Lyttelton Street, Spreydon. They returned home, drank . some flagons and then spent two hours at the Dominion Hotel in the city, leaving by taxi about 8 p.m. to return to the Lion Tavern.

They were unable to pay the taxi fare so the driver, Mr Leslie Roy Vickery, took Fryer’S saving bank passbook as security. Both accused then purchased a meal at Chothpers Hamburger Bar next to the hotel about 8.30 p;m. ; A young woman, Robyn Wendy Aldridge, of Frankton, and her father went for a stroll down Lincoln Road after booking in at the Addington motor camp. While passing Mr Carrodus’s shop on the opposite side of the road they saw the feet and ankles of someone lying on the floor through the open door. When two men came out and drove off in the car parked outside the shop Miss Aldridge took the number. She also saw that the' person lying on the floor of the shop

ihad his hands tied behind his back. The police were telephoned. The Crown said that the two- men who were in the shop, were Corkin and Fryer who had gone in to see what they could take from Mr Carrodus and, in the process, had severely assaulted him.

A constable who arrived at the shop at 9 p.m. found that Mr Carrodus was dead and that was confirmed by a doctor half an hour later, Mr Kerr said. Both accused drove to 108 Lyttelton Street where a neighbour, Mrs June Rose McCullough and her son, Michael, heard them arguing with Albert Kaye. A little later Mrs McCullough and her son heard the washing machine going which was very unusual for that time. The Crown said that the clothing of the accused was being washed to get rid of the blood and paint'stains. When the accused arrived at the house, Mr Kaye’s de facto wife, Christine Sue-Ann Dowie, was watching television. Corkin told the couple that he and Fryer had killed a man — that Fryer had been talking to the man when he (Corkin) came up behind him and hit him with something.

Fryer tipped a can of paint ■over the man and then struck 'him with the tin. After the accused changed their clothing Miss Dowie i ; washed it and some articles 'were burnt in the incinerator: in'the back yard. Pieces of; burnt fabric, a metal button,! a buckle and other oddments were later found in the incinerator by the police. Attempts were made by Corkin to clean his shoes, with petrol, no doubt in an, effort to get rid of the blood) and paint stains, said Mr Kerr. .'

About 9.40 p.m. Corkin and) Fryer were seen by a taxi) driver in Mr Carrodus’s carj near Sunnyside Hospital andi because of a radio request he followed the car to the Sockburn roundabout where he was joined by a police car and a traffic officer’s vehicle. The car was followed to Rakaia where it crashed through a police roadblock. It was pursued to Ashburton where it spun around and headed back towards Rakaia where it finally crashed into another police roadblock. Corkin was driving and Fryer, was in the passenger’s seat. It was 10.57 p.m. Both accused were arrested : for unlawfully taking the car and were taken to the Christ-1

church Central Police station where they were later charged with the murder of Mr Carrodus.

i Evidence would be given ‘by Dr Patrick Robert Kelleiher, a pathologist who examined the body of Mr Carroidus, that there were abrasions to the head and face, a fractured skull and a bruised brain. The injuries were consistent with forceful blows delivered by a length of heavy ; wood.

j A scientist from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr Peter j Rudolf Hentschel, would give ! evidence that Mr Carrodus’s j blood group was A, Fryer’s I was B and Corkin’s was O Group A blood was found in the basin in the bathroom at 108 Lyttelton Street, where the two accused were living and on shoes and clothes belonging to them. Paint found on the accused’s clothing and their bodlies was similar to that being used to redecorate Mr Carrodus’s new shop. A chain and cross belonging to Corkin was also found in the shop. All the evidence pointed irresistably to the conclusion that it was the two accused who had killed Mr Carrodus, said Mr Kerr.