Man bought knife on day of killing — witness

Press, 31 March 1981, Page 3

Man bought knife on day of killing — witness

?A Palmerston North A Woodville man accused of the murder of Peter Stafford Ferry at Pahiatua on December 4 last year bought a knife the same day Mr Ferry died, a High Court trial heard in Palmerston North yesterday. A Pahiatua sports shop owner, Mr Ross Liverton, told the court that the accused, Graeme Raymond Hancock, bought a knife from him about noon omthe day of Mr’Ferry’s, death, purportedly for pig hunting. Hancock, aged 26, a Pahiatua secondary school teacher, who had pleaded not guilty: to a charge of murder at a depositions hearing in February, appeared before Mr Justice Ongley and a jury.

Mr Gavin Russell Tinney, a flatmate and friend of Ferry, told the court that the deceased “never got into fights or anything. He wa's easy going and never seemed to get into any fights at all.” Under cross-examination from Hancock’s counsel, Mr T. A. de Cleene, Mr Tinney agreed that Mr Ferry took an interest in the theatre society in Pahiatua, an in-

terest that Hancock’s wife, Elizabeth, shared. The court was told that Ferry was the prince, and Mrs Hancock was Little Red Riding Hood, in Pahiatua’s Christmas pantomime and they had been in one another’s company for rehearsals before the show.

Mr Tinney also agreed with Mr de Cleene that Mr Ferry was “a handsome man

who liked the opposite sex and they liked him.” Dr R. E. W. Darby, a pathologist with the Palmerston North Hospital, gave evidence of finding 64 wounds in the deceased’s body, including an eightcentimetre gash in his back. He said that in his opinion, Ferry died as a'result of multiple stab wounds.