Police interview French couple

Press, 13 July 1985, Page 1

Police interview French couple

PA Auckland The Auckland police investigating the fatal bombing of the Rainbow Warrior were believed to be interviewing a French couple, last evening, the “New Zealand Herald” reported. The pair, a man and a woman, were found yesterday at a suburban Auckland van rental firm after the police had asked staff to watch for them. Two vans used by the French couple were fingerprinted at the Auckland Central Police Station, but the officer commanding the Rainbow Warrior inquiry, Detective Superintendent Allan Galbraith, declined to reveal the couple’s whereabouts. “We are not going to comment on who we are interviewing and who we are not,” he said. The French couple were spotted by staff at Newmans Motor Caravans, Mount Wellington, just before 9 a.m. The police had asked Newmans offices in Auckland, Wellington, and Picton the previous evening, to watch for the couple, and a car rental representative at the Mount Wellington branch, Becky Hayter, said

the couple were waiting outside when she arrived at work yesterday. “At first I thought the police had already caught them, because it was such a coincidence,” she said. She and another staff member realised the police were not involved when the French couple asked for a refund on the van. The staff delayed the couple as the police went to the scene. Ms Hayter said, “We thought of ways to delay them until the police arrived. They wanted a refund, so it was easy. The woman seemed jumpy. “We did it quite well, I thought.” The couple had hired a camoer van, intending to leave it in Wellington on Monday. It was their second visit to the depot within days. Earlier in the week they swapped vans because one had a broken windscreen. A second representative, who declined to be named, said she greeted the couple in their van when she arrived at work today. They had conflicting views on their holiday. “The man said it was good, but the woman said it

went badly. The woman was nervous.” Newmans’ operations manager, Mr John Hammond, said the police approached the firm the day before, saying they were interested in talking to the couple. Mr Hammond said the couple did not explain why they wanted to return the van early or where they were going. The police arrived and asked the couple to leave the office with them. The couple did not resist. Mr Galbraith, pressed for further information about the couple, said, “We are not making any comment about that.” Asked to comment on the significance of a Frenchman’s leaving the country after being aboard the Rainbow Warrior on the night of the sabotage, he said, “We have tried our very best to keep that in proportion, but he has been made more important by the media.” Mr Galbraith would not comment when a name believed to be that of the Frenchman found at the van rental office was mentioned.