Harris wants to avoid 'holocaust’

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 8

Harris wants to avoid 'holocaust’

PA Auckland An American, Milton Harris, says he wants to clear fraud charges, against him in the United States then return to settle with his new family in New Zealand.

He wants to stay in New Zealand, he says, because he has a “morbid fear” of nuclear holocaust in the Northern Hemisphere. Harris, aged 43, of Louisiana, is in Mount Eden jail awaiting extradition proceedings in relation to SUS2.B million ($4.93 million) life insurance claims. He has applied to the Minister of Immigration, Mr Rodger, for a special release from the conditions of a removal warrant taken out against him. The war-

rant was issued by an Auckland District Court judge on June 17 after the police proved Harris was the man who faked his disappearance over the side of the Cook Strait ferry Arahura in 1985. The warrant would normally prevent Harris re-entering New Zealand for a period of five years. Lawyers have prepared documents asking the Minister to reduce the ban to 12 months. Harris is to appear in the District Court at Auckland on July 12 to face charges of shoplifting baby clothes, valued at $149, escaping lawful custody and intentionally damaging a hospital door. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is proceeding with

plans to have Harris extradited in relation to complaints from Lloyds of London over life insurance claims made by Harris’ wife and two teenage children in Baton Rouge. The timing of his departure from New Zealand — and any return — will be decided by the Minister’s action over the appeal. Under new immigration legislation Harris cannot be deported until all avenues of appeal are exhausted. Mr Rodger has not given any indication when his decision will be made. The lawyer appointed to Harris under legal aid, Mrs Honoria Gray, said the appeal gave Harris’ “very morbid fear of holocaust in the Northern

Hemisphere” as his reason for coming to New Zealand in 1985, when he disappeared while on holiday. While on remand Harris had been visited several times by Ann Carter, the woman with whom he had been living in New Zealand and their 19-month-old child, Mrs Gray said. The couple planned to marry if Harris was allowed to return here. “He realises he has to go back to the United States to regularise his situation, but he thinks the future is down here. He just wants to lead a quiet life with his new family,” said Mrs Gray.