Sister recalls rings shared with Olivia

By Eugene Bingham

WELLINGTON - Olivia Hope's elder sister broke down in the witness box yesterday when she remembered the gifts of love they had exchanged just a week before the teenager disappeared.

Amelia Hope sobbed as she tried to explain the message engraved on the inside of the silver ring she had given to her sister for Christmas. Eventually, she composed herself and told the Scott Watson double murder trial what it said: To O Love A.

As she gave her evidence, Amelia Hope fiddled with the identical ring Olivia had given her, marked with the reciprocal reminder of sisterly love.

It was an emotional time for her as she told the High Court at Wellington she had sat opposite the man linked with her sister's murder during a water taxi journey early on New Year's Day 1998.

But she could not identify him.

After celebrating the New Year at Furneaux Lodge, Amelia Hope was making her way back to the yacht Tamarack she had chartered for a holiday with Olivia and a group of friends.

She and a friend, Rick Goddard, walked down to the jetty and waited for a ride about 3.20 am.

Within minutes, another young couple walked down the jetty with a water taxi driver.

The five of them hopped in the rubber runabout tied up to the wharf and the driver started the engines before a lone man walked down the jetty and boarded the boat also. He sat opposite Amelia Hope.

The Crown alleges this man was Watson.

Amelia Hope said that though there was a floodlight on the jetty, she did not see the man's face, and could not remember what he wore.

Asked by crown prosecutor Paul Davison, QC, to recall what she could of him, she said he was aged in his late 20s to early 30s with short hair that was receding on his temples.

After a journey of several minutes, the water taxi arrived at Tamarack. Amelia Hope said she saw Olivia standing on the yacht's stern and heard her speak to the driver.

"She said she was going to get this boat and go back to shore because there was no room on the Tamarack."

After Amelia Hope and Mr Goddard had hopped off the water taxi, Olivia and Ben Smart hopped on, joining the young couple, the driver and the lone man motoring off into the night.

Amelia Hope sat at the front of the yacht and huddled under a sleeping bag with a friend, Kirsty Sutherland. They shivered, talked and tried unsuccessfully to sleep. She snatched 20 minutes' sleep after finding a space downstairs.

After daylight, some of Olivia's friends on Tamarack went to shore to look for her. Although they could not find her, there was no real panic, said Amelia Hope.

"We thought she may have gone back to Punga [Cove]. We knew she would be all right, she would be safe somewhere."