INTERVIEW WITH ACCUSED,

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1943, Page 7

INTERVIEW WITH ACCUSED,

Detective R. J. Berry gave evidence of having interviewed Corcoran at the public hospital on August 13. Giving an account of his movements on the morning of June 4, the accused admitted that he had been in the bar of the Ranfurly Hotel about 11 o'clock and that he had no lunch. He also admitted that Sarginson had travelled from Ranfurly to Waipiata on the engine. On being told that it was alleged he had overrun the stations at Waipiata, Kokonga, and Hyde, he said he received signals to stop from his fireman, and any over-running may have been caused by the brakes, but he added that he had had no difficulty in stopping the train and that he had not found the brakes to be faulty. He did not think he was travelling any faster than on the trip he had made.the previous week. When it was suggested that the engine was steaming down the incline immediately prior to the smash he said, "If that's the case she would be doing 60 miles an hour when she reached the curve." He maintained that the engine was drifting and that a certain amount of steam would be escaping. Asked if he had any liquor on the train, witness continued, the accused admitted that he had bought two bottles of beer at Ranfurly as the hotels would be closed when he reached Dunedin. He had these bottles in his bag in the cab, but they had not been opened. A paste jar found in the cab was used by him for taking indigestion powder. He had had three beers in Ranfurly, but at the present strength of beer these would not affect him. He did not consider the curve where the derailment took place a bad one. He had not noticed anything wrong with the condition of the engine. He had seen no obstruction on the track nor had he received any complaints at the stops about the speed of the engine. The accused was then told it was alleged that he had made up 11 minutes betwen Kokonga and Hyde and he replied that he knew some time had been made up but he wo/ld not say it was 11 minutes. The statement, witness added, was a verbal one and was made in the presence of the accused's solicitor.