Kidnapping-charge trial committal

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 4

Kidnapping-charge trial committal

After kidnapping his former girlfriend at Sumner on June 24 a young Christchurch man told her it would be a night she would remember, the District Court was told yester-

day. Euan John Bielawski, aged 24, a projectionist, faced a charge of unlawfully carrying off Catherine Anne Ennis without her consent and with the intention of detaining her. After the taking of depositions yesterday, Mr R. M. Naysmith and Mrs C. M. Holmes, Justices of the Peace, committed Bielawski to the High Court for trial on September 10. Miss Ennis, aged 23, was the only one of the. six prosecution witnesses to give evidence in person. She had worked as a cinema publicist at the Hollywood Cinema, Sumner, with the defendant. She told the Court that as she walked from her car to the cinema at about 7.45 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, the

side door, of a parked camper van burst open and she was grabbed by the defendant. He forced her into the van saying that he wanted to talk to her because he had been fired from the cinema the previous evening and it was her fault for telling stories about him. Miss Ennis described how the defendant bound her wrists with nylon rope, and then her arms. She was gagged with a handkerchief but was able to work this loose as he drove the van.

“He said that he would make sure that it was a night I would remember, that films were his only life and because he had been fired he had nothing to live for,” she said. “He said he only had six months to live and didn’t care what happened that night.” Miss Ennis said she talked to him and he calmed down. She was shaking with both cold and fear

and the defendant put a blanket over her. He told her he had a XL rifle in the front, but Miss Ennis said he did not threaten her with it and told her it would not discharge because the magazine was in the back of the van.

She managed to untie herself as he continued to drive, but stayed where she was. When he stopped the van he acted as if he was in pain. She opened the door and walked away. Miss Ennis said she could not see anything but followed the white lines on the road. She went to one house in Rapaki and asked to use the telephone, but the lines were dead. She walked on to Cass Bay and again asked to use the telephone. The lines there were also dead, but the resident, June Elizabeth Porteous, drove her back to Sumner.

During cross-examination by Mr G. M. Brodie Miss Ennis said she could not remember who got into the camper van first. She did

not think she resisted because it happened so quickly. She had ended thenrelationship and during the two months before this incident had continued to reject his approaches. The police doctor, Kevin John O’Connor, examined Miss Ennis just after midnight. She had rope marks on her wrists and arms, but the skin had not been broken. She was shaken, but by that time was reasonably composed, he said in a statement read to the Court

The evidence of a Blenheim detective, Gavin Andrew Lysart, was suppressed It contained written and verbal statements made by the defendant, and Mr Brodie said it would be the subject of argument in the High Court and could prejudice potential jurors if it was published now. Bielawski was remanded on $2OOO bail with a surety of $2OOO.

Sergeant C. P. Healey prosecuted for the police.