Square stab victim had twelve wounds

Press, 14 June 1986, Page 7

Square stab victim had twelve wounds

A man said to have been the victim of an attack on Cathedral Square, near the bus kiosk, about 10.30 p.m. on February 3 sustained 10 puncture wounds to the body, one to the scalp, and one to an arm according to medical evidence given in the District Court yesterday. The evidence by Mohammed Ahmed Hassan, a surgeon at Christchurch Hospital, was given on the second day of the hearing of a joint charge against two men of attempting to murder Alan Leslie O’Brien aged 24, in Cathedral Square. The defendants, Robert Thomas Francis Crimp, aged 22, unemployed (Mr E. Bedo), and Brent William Pool, aged 28, unemployed (Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon), are also separately charged with unlawfully possessing a knife in Cathedral Square. The preliminary hearing, before Messrs R. C. Holland and J. B. Andersen, Justices of the Peace, will continue on June 20.

Dr Hassan detailed the wounds to Mr O’Brien. These included a wound severing a heart artery, another into the heart, and one into a lung, one into the spleen, and others in the abdomen.

He said the wounds, were consistent with injuries caused by a knife, typical of one shown to him by the police.

Scientific evidence was that a trace of blood was found on a knife said to have been in Pool’s possession. No blood was

found on a knife said to have been owned by Crimp.

Two girls aged 16, who were eye-witnesses to the incident near the bus kiosk, gave evidence and were cross-examined by defence counsel for most of yesterday. The first witness yesterday gave evidence of being at a bus stop and seeing the taller of two men punch another man in the stomach and then make a stabbing action.

The shorter man with him then went round to the victim’s head and began kicking and punching him.

The shorter man then said to come on they had to go, and both ran past the bus stop.

The witness identified the shorter man as a defendant in Court (Crimp).

She said she was not sure about the other defendant being the other person involved, as that person did not have a beard on the night of the incident.

In a long crossexamination by Mr Bedo, the witness agreed that she had not mentioned in her statement to the police that she saw the shorter man attack the victim. Later in the crossexamination she agreed it was true that she had not seen the shorter man hurt the victim. The second witness said she was waiting at the bus stop near the bus koisk and saw two men crossing the pedestrian crossing.

Two other men crossed from a different direction and two banged into each

other. Neither was going to let the other go past first.

Words were exchanged, including swearing. One of these men, who was later stabbed, tried to calm the other man down. The victim’s friend ran off.

The two other men, whom she identified as Pool and Crimp began "hassling round” the victim, and began punching and shuffling round him.

The victim told them to calm down and appeared to be trying to let things be.

The victim had thrown a patty at Pool, just before the “punch-up.” During the punch-up Pool reached for something at chest height, and then either punched or stabbed the victim, who fell.

Pool then bent down and punched the victim. It was not a punching movement. (The witness demonstrated a downwards movement with her right hand). She said she did not see what Pool had. The victim was crunched up on the ground.

The shorter man (Crimp) then kicked and punched the victim about his upper body, while Pool was at his back. Pool made about six or seven punching motions. Crimp had joined in after Pool began punching. Both had delivered punches and kicks to the victim. After the attack had ended Crimp pulled his companion away. They then turned and looked at the victim, and walked off.

Cross-examined by Mr Bedo, the witness was told that none of the other witnesses had said that they saw Crimp strike or punch the victim. She said that was not her fault. She saw what she saw. She said she saw Crimp pull Pool away from the victim. Told again that no other witness had given evidence of seeing Crimp strike the victim, the witness said she was not sure whether Crimp hit or held him down, but he kicked him. Questioned further about the kicking, the witness agreed that at the time her attention was taken by Pool, who was punching the victim on the ground. The victim groaned when he was kicked. The kicks were directed at his neck or upper back. Asked if she could have been mistaken in what she saw Crimp do, she said she could be but she was not. She knew what she saw. She was not going to change it “just because you (Mr Bedo) are trying to put it in my head that it is different.” Asked, bearing in mind her evidence and the conditions in which she saw the incident, that she could be mistaken, she said she could be. To Mr Fitzgibbon, the witness said it was only after the victim threw a paua patty that she saw Pool punch him. She thought the patty was thrown at Pool. Neither group would give way to the other when they first encountered each other.