occurred for wine and burn-up’

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 5

occurred for wine and burn-up’

An elderjy hairdresser had] been battered to death and! paint poured over his head I in a Lincoln Road shop sol that two young men' could buy a bottle of Cresta Dore wine for $2.25 and go for a “burn-up” in his car, Mr Justice Roper and a jury were told in the-High Court yesterday. Warren James Corkin, aged . 23, and Raymond Bremner Fryer, aged 29, both' unemployed,; have pleaded not guilty to- murdering George Frankley Carrodus, a 62-year-old hairdresser,- in the shop he was renovating on February 21. It is expected that the defence will not open their case until next week. The trial began on Tuesday. 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. Detective Constable David Charles Norton said that at 10.57 p.m. on February 21 he was at a police road block at the Rakaia River bridge when a Subaru car was stopped. After Corkin, - who was driving, admitted “pinching” the car he was given the usual warning about not having to say anything, and was handcuffed and placed i in the back of a patrol car. He said he did not know I whose car it was and that ; the keys had been in the igl nition.

Questioned at the Central Police Station Corkin said that he could not recall any ! incidents before getting into I the car. He was told that an (elderly person had been 'killed and two persons had taken his car, which was the one Corkin was in when it was stopped. Corkin said that he had got paint on his hands when he had been painting at 108 Lyttelton Street two days before. “I’ve got nothing to say. I don’t remember nothing,” he allegedly said. “I’ve been on the piss all day. I can’t help as my mind’s a blank. I don’t know what I’m capable of doing when I’ve been drinking as I have a drink problem, but I’m not capable of murder. You’re having me on.” Corkin had admitted taking the car but denied beating up the old man in the shop or playing any part in his death. Detective Norton said.

Detective Norton said he told Corkin that until they knew to the contrary it was assumed that the men who killed the man were the same ones who took the car. “There’s your case. It’s all sewn up. Send us up to court tomorrow and get it over with,” Corkin had allegedly said. Told that he was suspected of being involved in the man’s death Corkin responded: “Charge me then.”

Asked why he had gone into the shop Corkin replied that it was to get some money. “The old fellow turned around and. got nasty, if I remember right. He pushed me out of. the way. It started out as a bit of a scuffle. It was him and me scrapping around on the floor. I i just picked up a piece of i four by two and whacked! him. I didn’t go in to kill him at all.” He had said to Ray (Fryer) that “if he (Mr Carrodus) owns the car we’ll go in there, roll him and get the keys,” Corkin had said. Corkin said that he had tied the man up so that they could get away without him getting up. He did not know he was dead. While he had the man around the throat when they were on the floor he had asked for his money and the man had pulled out a couple of dollars. He hit him with the wood to ■ quieten him down and took the car keys from his pocket. It had never entered his head, Corkin had said, that the man might die. They had only gone into the shop tc rob him. The first he knew the man was dead was when they got pulled up by the police.

Asked how he felt about it then, Corkin replied: “Pretty bad.” It had been arranger for Fryer to go in first and he would follow and lock the door. One of them was to hold the man while the other “did him over.”

When he entered the shop Corkin said that the man was painting and tried to fight him off. He thought it was with a chisel.

Asked why he wanted the car Corkin replied that he did not even know but he supposed that it was to go for a “burn.” The money he had stolen from the man had been used to buy a bottle of wine from the Black Horse Hotel bottle store.

Detective Constable Step-

hen John Holley said that Fryer was carrying a wine bottle when he got out of the car after it had crashed into the police road block at Rakaia. Asked if he remembered the man in the shop Fryer replied: “What man?” Invited to tell the full story of what had happened Fryer responded: “Don’t try and con me. What are you going on about?” Told that a man had been viciously battered and killed and paint poured over his head in a Lincoln Road shop Fryer said that he knew nothing about it. Then he added: “Well, don’t look at me man. I never done it. I don’t know how I came to be in the car. I remember leaving the hotel and the ihext thing I was getting (dragged out of the car.” I Detective Senior-Sergeant Malvin Douglas Griebel said that in a written statement Fryer had said that he and Corkin had gone out on the town and had a pretty hectic drinking day from 11 a.m. During the evening they were walking along Lincoln

Road after buying a meal when they decided to get a car to go for a “burn-up.” There was one outside a shop which was being done up. One fellow was working there.

“We were just going to knock him over and take the keys to the car. I’m not sure what the fellow said but Warren hit him. I think he hit him first with his fist and then the fellow retaliated and I hit him with my fist. Warren finished him off with a hunk of wood which was lying on the floor. Warren hit him about half a dozen times. “When this fellow was lying there I tipped the paint over him. I don’t know why I did that. Then we just grabbed the keys and took off. I got the keys from his trouser pocket,” Fryer said in the statement. After describing the highspeed chase to Ashburton and back to Rakaia, Fryer concluded the statement by saying: “There’s nothing much more to say except that I’m very sorry about the whole thing.”