Naughty boy who sailed into a world of trouble

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE and ANGELA GREGORY

OPOTIKI - Sir Thomas Graham Fry, one of the New Zealanders charged in Australia's biggest cocaine haul, was always a naughty boy.

But his "title" is at least registered.

Fry's mother, Linda Driffill, of Opotiki, said yesterday that she registered the name at the Hamilton Courthouse almost 48 years ago.

Her son's father, who she left when the boy was 10, had an uncle called Sir in England "and he wanted Tom to have the same name."

Mrs Driffill, who has lived in Opotiki for 16 years, said she was shocked and hurt when she heard on the radio of Tom's arrest.

He had looked her up when he was in his 30s (his 48th birthday is on Tuesday) and they had had sporadic meetings over the years "when he had bits of business in Opotiki."

"I knew he was a naughty boy - he has been all his life.

"I didn't have anything in common with him. I just happen to be his mother."

Her ex-husband, now dead, had custody of the children, and she and her second husband, now retired, did not know what Tom did.

Fry and fellow New Zealander Hamish Edmond Thompson appeared in court in Sydney this week after the yacht Ngaire Wha was seized off the Australian coast while carrying 500kg of cocaine worth $286 million - Australia's largest seizure of the drug.

His sister, Delwyn Fry, was not surprised to hear of her brother's arrest or his alleged involvement in an international cocaine smuggling operation stretching from South America to New Zealand and Australia.

"I was expecting it," said the 45-year-old, who also lives in Opotiki.

"I think he is an idiot. I hope he goes away for life."

She spent several months sailing with her brother between Picton, Gisborne and Auckland on his schooner, Lonebird, which he bought last March and which is now lying abandoned in Gisborne.

Knowing her brother's "miles long" criminal record, she sought assurance from him that all was above board.

"He promised me he had nothing to do with drugs.

"But I had my doubts."

The pair had "a big bust-up" just before Christmas, when plans to buy a florist shop in Opotiki went sour. She was going to run the business and her brother was to have a financial stake in it.

But after the falling-out "I refused to speak to him again."

They had a hard upbringing in Orewa with a "pretty cruel father" after their mother "couldn't take it any more" and walked out.

Her brother had married twice, and had been in and out of prison during his adult life.

His only child, a son now in his mid-20s, hardly knew him.

Delwyn Fry said she met Hamish Thompson when he visited the Lonebird a few times in Gisborne.

Fry told his sister he and Thompson did time together in Australia.

On December 14, 1992, Fry was sentenced in Sydney to a minimum of four years in jail for knowingly taking part in the manufacture of a prohibited drug.

He was released on parole in September 1996, but went back to jail on April 3, 1997, for breaching his parole conditions.

Thompson is the son of a Christchurch doctor. His mother, Margaret, said yesterday that her son's arrest was a bitter blow and she did not want to say more.

One of twins, Thompson was a talented student at St Bede's College and his looks made him something of a heart-throb.

In his early 20s, he married a French woman and worked for a travel agency in France.

In 1977 he was caught in a botched attempt to take 5000 sticks of cannabis into Australia through New Zealand.

Yesterday, Auckland drug squad detectives and customs officials spent the day poring over the abandoned yacht Bora Bora II, which they believe may have been used to transport the cocaine from South America to New Zealand waters, before it was transferred to the Ngaire Wha.

The Bora Bora II arrived at Matauwhi Bay, Opua, two days after the Ngaire Wha left Opua.

Test results on the 13m Dusseldorf-registered steel boat are expected to be known today.

The three-man Colombian crew abandoned the boat last week and flew from Auckland to Tahiti, apparently bound for South America.

Police say the three were under surveillance when they left the country, and detectives have photographs of them.

Auckland drug squad officer Detective Sergeant Mike Paki said police made what he termed a judgment call to let the men depart.

He said police were making good progress in their investigations in the Bay of Islands, but whether the three men would be found depended on the cooperation of overseas authorities.