Olivia argued with woman using her bed

By Alison Horwood

Olivia Hope became distressed when she returned to her yacht early on New Year's Day and found someone had taken her bed.

Jeffrey Fyfe, who organised the charter boat Tamarack with Olivia Hope and a group of friends, woke about 3 am to hear the 17-year-old arguing with another woman.

"She was complaining that there was a girl there who shouldn't have taken her place," he told the Scott Watson double-murder trial in the High Court at Wellington yesterday. "She said she paid, she should give her her bed."

The Crown says Olivia Hope and Ben Smart, 21, were killed after accepting a berth on a strange yacht when they discovered that the Tamarack was overcrowded.

Watson denies murdering the pair on or about New Year's Day in the Marlborough Sounds.

Mr Fyfe, a Christchurch student, told the court the 28-foot yacht had 10 people on board when it arrived at Endeavour Inlet.

The group, who had been drinking throughout the day, went ashore to Furneaux Lodge in three groups and finally arrived at the party about 8 pm.

Mr Fyfe said that about 9.30 pm he noticed Olivia Hope standing near the garden bar talking to a group of men he did not know. About 10 pm, he talked to Ben Smart. Before he returned to the Tamarack just after midnight, he saw the pair talking outside near the garden bar.

Mr Fyfe and another passenger returned to Tamarack and went to sleep.

Crown prosecutor Nicola Crutchley asked: Were you affected by alcohol?

Mr Fyfe: It was a hot day, we had been in the sun all day and we were affected by alcohol.

He said he woke about 3 am to hear people talking in the cabin and he recognised Olivia Hope's voice. Asked whether the boat was full, he said: "Yes."

"We had gained a few extras by then." The six berths were full and other people were already asleep on the floor.

Mr Fyfe had poked his head around the door and "egged" the argument along. "I was being cheeky." He also noticed Ben Smart standing at the bottom of the stairs.

Soon after he returned to bed the voices stopped and he assumed Olivia Hope and Ben Smart had left.

When the group woke, they presumed the pair had gone to stay at a bach with friends at Punga Cove on the other side of Endeavour Inlet.

They went ashore to look for the pair at the bach and to check tracks around Punga Cove.