'Mr Asia' trial Not fair — accused

Press, 11 May 1981, Page 7

'Mr Asia' trial Not fair — accused

Lancaster An alleged drug ring "Mr ' ±>ig , Alexander Sinclair, said i he was not getting “a fair crack of the whip" when he rose in the dock. . Sinclair, aged 36, was objecting to the "Mr Asia” trial judge’s decision to sit tomorrow when his leading counsel will be absent. “It’s my life that’s on the line,” the New Zealander said. Counsel, Mr Robin Simpson, Q.C., had asked for the adjournment because he had to appear in the Court of Appeal in another case. Mr Simpson said Sinclair was anxious that he should be present for the evidence to be heard tomorrow. Sinclair’s former chauffeur, Sylvester Pidgeon, who will give evidence, told police that he was "only a small fish in a big pond.” He saw the good life for a change but was on a small wage while others were getting millions, his statement said. Mr Simpson's application was directly opposed by the leading prosecution counsel, Mr Michael Maguire, Q.C. The trial judge, Mrs Justice Heilbron said she was certain that Sinclair's interests would be well looked after by his junior counsel, Mr Dermott Wright. She ruled that the court, which is losing today’s sitting because of a prison dispute, should resume tomorrow. It was then that Sinclair, in the absence of the jury, rose and asked permission to address the judge. He said that he had seen Mr Simpson at work on other witnesses’ cross-examina-tions. "I’ve seen how he watches how they act in the box and watches the demeanour and then judges when he will ask questions,” he said. "I think Mr Simpson, being absent, will come back to the notes, but he won’t have the feel of the case. "I don’t think I’m getting a fair crack of the whip. I “I know Mr Wright will take a full note of it, but its t completely different.

Sinclair sat down as her Honour said: "Mr Simpson, I'm sorry, I can't.” It had been hoped that Pidgeon’s defence could have been over this week, but a juror s illness prevented the Court from hearing evidence on Friday. The juror has apparently recovered from a virus infection. The other problem impeding the trial’s progress is the prison officers’ dispute. No prisoners would be taken into court by the officers, who are taking part in a civil service pay campaign. The jury has heard a cross-examination of another defendant, Kingsley Fagan, aged 27, a former Scots Guard and athlete who expected to run the 400 m hurdles for Scotland before his arrest. Fagan said that to inform police of the death of Christopher Martin Johnstone would be to put his own head on the block. He described the New Zealand drugs buyer’s admitted killer, Andrew Maher, as a "nutter.” "If I informed on Mr Maher he would obviously find out and I’d be risking myself,” Fagan said. At one stage he felt that Maher "might crack up.” Fagan agreed that he “put his head in the lion’s mouth” by visiting Maher with his friend, James Smith, who was with Maher when Johnstone was shot and his body mutilated. later to be dumped in a flooded Lancashire quarry. Although he had said yes to Maher’s plan to run cocaine into Australia, Fagan said he was not agreeing. “It would appear to anyone else looking outside that you were agreeing to them to do it,” prosecution counsel (Mr Rhys Davies, Q.C.) said. “Yes,” Fagan replied, “but to me no.” He maintained that at no time did he agree, nor was he asked, to import or supply drugs in Britain, the counts on which he is charged here.