Accused unfaithful to wife—son

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 29

Accused unfaithful to wife—son

A man accused of murdering his wife had been confronted over an alleged affair with another woman about a week before the death, the High Court heard yesterday. Mr Bruce Clark, aged 18, told Mr Justice Williamson and a jury how he had raised the question of the affair with the defendant, his stepfather, Paul Charles James Aldous, aged 34, an unemployed labourer, in front of his mother, Carol Ann Aldous.

Paul Aldous, represented by Mr Nigel Hampton and Mr lan Hunt, has denied murdering Mrs Aldous, who died from a single gunshot wound to her forehead.

Crown prosecutors, Messrs Graham Panckhurst and Michael Leonard, allege the shooting occurred during the early hours of October 15 last year in a front bedroom of the couple’s Burke Street home. Mr Clark said that during October last year he was living in the Burke Street house with his mother and stepfather. The couple, he said, had their "ups and downs” with Aldous moving to Blenheim at one stage during their marriage.

Mr Clark said that about a week before his mother’s death he had taken a previous witness, Mr Russell Keeley, to Burke Street. There, in front of the defendant and Mrs Aldous, he asked Mr Keeley if the defendant was sleeping with another woman.

Mr Keeley said it was true and the woman was identified. Aldous had said that it was not true.

Mr Clark said of his mother, “She wasn’t all that upset about it.”

A discussion followed and it was decided Aldous would move. "He said he would move when he finished his periodic detention.”

Mr Clark said he understood Aldous was to have moved out the day his mother died. The witness said that on the Wednesday evening before the shooting he was alone at home. An occasional visitor to the house, Mr Wayne Flynn, arrived to use the telephone. He had with him two friends.

Mr Flynn started using the telephone, but then began arguing with one of his companions. “I said to him not to cause any trouble in our house. Then he started walking up to me. “I thought he was going to hit me so I hit him first.”

Mr Clark said Mr Flynn got the better of the ensuing fight. Mr Flynn left and Mr Clark went out intending to find and tell Mrs Aldous, whom he came across on the street.

“She was very angry. I told Mum what had happened. Then we went back home.”

Mrs Aldous rang the defendant at a hotel and he arrived home soon after with Mr Keeley and another man.

“He (Aldous) said ‘We’ll go round to Flynn’s house.’ He gave me a piece of wood.” They went to Mr Flynn’s house and in the doorway Mr Clark struck Mr Flynn on the arm. Mr Flynn disarmed him and Mr Clark left, telling the defendant, “If you are not going to stick up for me you can get stuffed.” Mr Clark said he returned home and told Mrs Aldous, who was upset. She set off on foot for Mr Flynn’s home.

He told how later in the evening Mr Keeley and Aldous arrived home with the .22 rifle.

They went into the bedroom where Aldous and Mr Keeley put the bolt and magazine in the gun. They then pulled back the bolt to see if a bullet would come up and load into the gun. The bullet was replaced in the magazine. The rifle was put in the wardrobe and the magazine in a clock on the mantelpiece.

Mr Clark described the gathering of people at the Burke Street house the Friday evening before the shooting. Beer, bourbon and softdrink had been bought.

Between 1 a.m. and 1.30 a.m. he drove a casual girlfriend home to Hoon Hay, calling via a service station where he met Mr Flynn. The pair both apologised over their earlier fight. On his way home he was stopped by the police and arrested for disqualified driving.

He was taken to Christchurch Central Police

Station and about 2 a.m. telephoned home and spoke to his mother. Mr Clark said he learned of his mother’s death later in the morning.

Cross-examined, Mr Clark agreed Aldous was not to have finished his periodic detention sentence until two or three weeks after the discussion about the affair.

The couple, he said, “got on all right together” after that discussion.

Mr Clark agreed that his mother had still been concerned about the incident involving Mr Flynn even though he felt it was over.

Miss Robyn Halcrow said she was friendly with Mrs Aldous. She described events leading up to a gathering at the Burke Street house on the Friday evening before Mrs Aldous was shot.

She said she was one of seven people present, including the defendant, Mrs Aldous, Mr Bruce Clark and a teen-age girl. Bourbon and beer was being consumed in the kitchen. Others left or went to bed and she was eventually left alone with the defendant and Mrs Aldous.

She joined the teen-age girl in a waterbed in a front bedroom and later heard Mrs Aldous answer a telephone call. Mrs Aldous came into the bedroom and spoke to her. The witness said she was uncertain whether she got up at that stage.

Mrs Aldous later came into the room again. “I got up after that. I got dressed and walked out of the bedroom. There was a knock at the front door.”

Miss Halcrow said she answered the door to the defendant.

She said’ they gathered in the kitchen where she heard Mrs Aldous and the defendant talk about where a Christchurch gang lived.

“The conversation wasn’t that good. They weren’t talking that well.”

Miss Halcrow said she drank a soft-drink before returning to bed. “I had just pulled the cover over me. Then I heard somebody walk up the hallway.”

Miss Halcrow said she could tell it was Aldous and he went into the

other front bedroom. “Then I heard some clicking noises. I could tell it was the gun.” The witness said she woke the girl and they both got up.

Miss Halcrow said that as she dressed she heard Mrs Aldous walk down the hallway and into the bedroom opposite. “Then she said ‘so you have got the gun out’.”

She said she heard Aldous reply: “Yeah and I’ll show you how to use it.”

Mr Panckhurst: What sort of voices were being used?

Miss Halcrow: Ann (Mrs Aldous) was quite frightened when she said “So you have got the gun out.”

The witness described hearing a “poof” sound followed by the sound of someone falling. She told of leaving the house in an unsuccessful attempt to raise help. Cross-examined, she agreed that earlier in the evening the defendant and Mrs Aldous had been dancing, kissing and cud-

dling. A girl, aged 15, also told of the gathering in the Burke Street house on Friday evening, and said that she retired to a waterbed in one of the front bedrooms about 12.30 a.m. She said she was later joined by Miss Halcrow.

The witness said she heard the telephone ring and Mrs Aldous then came into the room.

Afterwards, when Miss Halcrow appeared asleep, she heard two arguments between the defendant and Mrs Aldous, one over Mr Clark’s current girlfriend and the other over whether Mr Clark should be uplifted from the police cells. She fell asleep to be woken later by Miss Halcrow.

The girl said she heard Mrs Aldous say: “I see you have got the gun out have you?”

She heard the defendant reply: “Yeah. You want me to show you how it works?”

A “poof” sound could be heard followed by the sound of someone falling. The girl said Mrs Aldous had sounded scared. She left the room and saw Aldous standing at the half-open bedroom door opposite, holding a firearm. The witness said she asked where Mrs Aldous was and was told she was in the toilet. She checked and returned, pushing open the door to the surprise of Aldous.

“I asked him where she was and I turned around and saw her lying on the floor. She was sitting upright. She was by the bed up against a chest.” She was pinned beside a door by Aldous.

“I asked him if I could ring an ambulance. We might be able to save her. He kind of laughed and said, ‘Well, I hope you can’.”

She said she freed herself and telephoned for an ambulance. Aldous went into the bedroom and em-

erged, pointing the gun at her.

“I stopped talking. I was scared.”

Before getting the weapon he had tried unsuccessfully to cut the call off, she said. Aldous eventually left through the front door but was seen on the street a short time later wandering in circles. Cross-examined, the girl said Aldous did not like waterbeds and had refused to try the bed brought to the house about five days before the shooting.

She said she did not consider Mrs Aldous afraid of Mr Flynn.

She denied Aldous was in tears in the hallway after the shooting.

Detective Brent Wilson said he joined other police in a search of neighbouring properties for the defendant.

He found Aldous asleep in an armchair at the rear of 23 Burke Street.

The hearing will continue today.