Horse in M.E., says caller

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 8

Horse in M.E., says caller

NZPA Belfast The LIO million (SNZ2I million) racehorse. Shergar. stolen last week from his stud farm in Ireland, was now in the Middle East, it was asserted yesterday. An anonymous caller to the "News Letter" in Belfast and the 8.8.C.'s Belfast studios said that it had been a financial transaction and that the horse would be used as a stud. The "News Letter s" news editor. David Kirk, who took the call, said that the man he spoke to had been the same one who called him last week to arrange negotiations with three London racing journalists. The man. who had spoken with a southern Irish accent, said he was “spilling the beans" now because accom-

plices in the South had left the country and cut him and two others out of their share of money received for Shergar. Mr Kirk said that the man had asserted that Shergar was stolen from the Aga Khan's Ballymena stud farm at Newbridge. County. Kildare. solely for the Middle East transaction. The detailed instructions for the three journalists, who went to Belfast to act as intermediaries in ransom talks, had been a decoy from start to finish, the caller had said. Mr Kirk said that the man had asserted that Friday's call to Judy Maxwell, wife’of Shergar's trainer. Jeremy Maxwell, to say that Shergar was dead, had really been a coded message to someone in

Northern Ireland that the horse was safely out of the country. The caller had told Mr Kirk that the gang responsible for stealing Shergar had worked as two units — one in .Northern Ireland consisting of himself and two other people, and the other in the South. He had gone on to explain that a ransom demand for t 40.000 (SNZB4.BOO) had been made by him by mistake. "He said he was unable to read his own hand-writing properly. It should have been t 848.000." Mr Kirk said. The man also had said that he had already been in touch with Mrs Maxwell, whom he described as a "very brave lady" for the way she had coped last week.

He had told her that, as he had first given her the information that Shergar was in the Middle East, she was entitled to any reward money for Shergar's safe return.

The man had asserted that Mrs Maxwell had undertaken to use any reward money she might receive "to build a new stand at Downpatrick racecourse in County Down." Mr Kirk said.

A spokesman at police headquarters at Dublin Castle said that he had been told about the telephone calls.

"It seems to be something worth looking into and I have passed it on to the investigation team at Newbridge." he said.