Courier gives evidence

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 25

Courier gives evidence

NZPA’ London Although frightened of a death peanlty she thought she faced if caught, an Australian woman agreed to carry heroin from Thailand, the “Mr Asia” trial heard yesterday. Kay Margaret Reynolds said she was paid sAust2ooo (SNZ2S2O) for the airline to Singapore, which was one of three which she recalled to the Court. On her first run she carried heroin from Singapore to London after the destination changed from Australia. On another, she took the narcotic to Fiji as a staging post in its trip to New Zealand. Miss Reynolds said she used false-bottomed suitcases and was directed by men whose first names were all she knew.

i Later she was to learn some of their full names, including that of a New Zealander, Terry Clark, for whom she said she worked. Clark is on trial in the drugs conspiracy and murder case under the name of Alexander Sinclair. A former Sydney massage parlour employee from Barcaldine in Queensland, Miss Reynolds, aged 31, yesterday became the first admitted courier to give evidence at the trial. At one stage of the proceedings she desribed defacing her Australian passport so it could be replaced with a fresh one because she wanted to continue running heroin. Miss Reynolds was driven to the high security Lancaster Castle yesterday in a convoy of three unmarked police cars, accompanied by eight plain clothes officers. Three of the armed policemen escorted the tall redhaired woman, dressed in a black skirt and blouse and a grey jacket, into a court room crowded for her appearance. The proesecution counsel, Mr Michael Maguire, Q.C., began to take her evidence with the question: “What do you understand by the expression 'Number One Chinese White’?”

“That.s heroin,” she said. “I believe it’s quite pure.” Miss Reynolds told the Court that in 1978 she was asked to bring a load of heroin into Australia by a woman named Elizabeth Tully. They had met when working in the massage parlour.

Through Miss Tully she met a New Zealander, Allison Dine — who is also to give evidence in this case — and Sinclair.

Miss Reynolds said she agreed to go to Singapore in May or June, 1978, carrying' a bundle of money, and was also given .an advance on what she was told would be a $12,600 wage for the trip. “Allison gave me $1260 before I left so I’d have some spending money in Singapore,” she said. Mr Maguire asked: “At this stage did you know who you were working for?”

—“Yes I did. I was working for Terry Clark. Liz told me before I went.”

“Was anything said abou risks?”

—“There was always a chance that I might be caught on the way back. But it was just mentioned, just like that.. Nothing else was said.”

On her arrival in Singapore, she met a man who spoke with an American accent called Leigh, and Andrew Maher, a Briton, who has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and murder charges in this case. Maher told Miss Reynolds there had been a change of plan and instead she was to take the heroin to Britain. She later learned that Sinclair had been arrested in Brisbane.

Leigh took the bundle of money and her suitcases and she was given two others with false bottoms. The heroin was in plastic bags hidden under a screw-down panel, she said. At other times, the drug was wrapped in fibre glass to combat "sniffer” dogs at airports. Miss Reynolds travelled to London via Amsterdam and Manchester and was met at a hotel by Maher, who took the heroin out, put it in a sports bag, and left. She was told she-would be paid $2OOO when she went back to Singapore and Maher gave her the air fare. Back at the south-east Asian port she was oaid by three people who she had just met.

One was a Chinese man called Jack, another was called Australian Bob. The Court has heard that the latter was a New South Welshman, Robert Trimbole, She could not remember the third.

■ Miss Reynolds agreed to go on the Fiji run and flew with suitcases of heroin to the South Pacific islands, where she was met by Leigh and checked in at a Travellodge hotel. They then swapped to another called the Regency. “Why was it necessary to change?” Mr Maguire asked.. “To swap over the suitcases, so they could be picked up from Fiji by another courier and flown to New Zealand.”. Miss Reynolds then returned to her flat in Cro-

. nulla, Sydney, where Miss Dine contacted her. At that time, the New Zealander’s job was to recruit couriers. Miss Reynolds defaced her passport so she could apply for. another. “I wanted to continue doing heroin runs and I had quite a few stamped on the back of it of places where I’d already been,” she said. “Was it customary or unusual to deface passports?” Mr Maguire asked. —“Customarv.” Late in 1978 Miss Reynolds went back to Singapore where Chinese Jack told her of a plan to move heroin there from Bangkok. “I was very scared because if you are caught in Bangkok you are apparently shot.” “But you agreed to go?” —“Yes.” On the Bangkok trip she was escorted at a distance by a Chinese man she knew as Frank Morgan. At the Thai Airport he directed her to the car-park where her clothes were moved from her own cases to an identical pair holding the heroin. For two days she stayed at a Bangkok hotel and then Morgan escorted her to Singapore on the same plane, flying first class while she flew economy.

“There was no contact' in the flight. The purpose was if anything went wrong in customs .the escort would be available to ring the necessary people.” “Who were the necessary people?” —“Lawyers.”

“Did couriers know wha lawyers were to be called?” —“No.”

On her arrival in Singapore, Miss Reynolds handed over the suitcases and was paid.