Saudi, murder story

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 5

Saudi, murder story

NZPA 1 London Allegations that an English nurse, Helen Smith, was gang-raped and beaten to death at an illicit .drinking party in Saudi Arabia are being investigated by British detectives.

The party, which ended in the death of the nurse and her Dutch boyfriend, resulted in jail and flogging sentences for five people including a New Zealander, Timothy Hayter.

All five have since been pardoned by the Saudi authorities and the sentences Swashed, and Mr Hayter and te others have left the desert kingdom. The sentences were for drinking offences ano giving misleading statements.

The official version of events is that Miss Smith and the Dutchman fell to their deaths from a balcony in the Jeddah flat of a British couple, Richard and Penny Arnot.

But the fortnightly British magazine “Private Eye,” said two weeks ago that the two were murdered and the British Foreign Office was involved in a cover-up. It said the British ViceConsul in Jeddah (Mr Gordon Kirby), had been a lover of Mrs Arnot’s and helped create the impression after the party that the two dead people had fallen from the balcony.

The Foreign Office yesterday denied any involvement in a cover-up’ and accused “Private Eye” of publishing “a number of untrue allegations about the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the conduct of consular officials in the British Embassy in Jeddah”. It said that no-one from the embassy was at the party and that Mr Kirby had not met Mrs Arnot before the next morning. A Foreign Office spokesman said later: “Our statement is not a refutation of the ‘Private Eye’ account, but our version of the facts. What we are doing is correcting factual errors.” A “Private Eye” spokesman said it stood by its story and that it would publish more details about the party — and the life of for-

eigners in “dry” Saudi — in future issues. The deputy head of West Yorkshire detectives, Mr Jim Hobson, said an English police investigation into the party would begin at the request of the Leeds Coroner. Miss Smith was from Leeds, and her father has conducted a vigorous campaign to try to - find out what really happened at the party. Like “Private Eye,” he believes his daughter was murdered. "The deputy Leeds Coroner (Mr Miles Coverdale) has asked me to make inquiries on his behalf and to interview people .in this country who might be able to assist. Among those to be seen are Mr and Mrs Arnot,” Mr Hobson said. The Arnots are out of Britain on holiday.