NZ police in islands get tip on killer

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Solomon Islands police are understood to have passed a lead about the murder of Bridget Nichols to the two New Zealand police officers sent to help them.

One of three security guards supposedly watching the deputy high commissioner's Honiara residence when she was stabbed at the weekend was still being questioned yesterday, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported.

But no more information was available from local police, and the New Zealanders could not be reached.

Detective Inspector Brian Pearce, from Christchurch, and Detective Sergeant Kim Libby of the Takapuna CIB spent the day being briefed and interviewing High Commission staff. They also visited the murder scene.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said they had spoken to the islands' assistant commissioner of crime, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Australian federal police adviser attached to the CID.

An autopsy was performed in Auckland and Ms Nichols' body was yesterday being transported to Wellington where she will be buried, probably on Tuesday.

Her sister and a nephew are travelling from England.

Prime Minister Helen Clark moved a motion in Parliament yesterday "recording our sorrow" at the killing.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary Gordon Shroff is at the High Commission and is likely to put diplomatic pressure on the Solomons Government and police about the unsolved murder of New Zealand construction supervisor Kevin O'Brien in Honiara five weeks ago.

Although there is a suspect, no one has been arrested.

New Zealander Dave Gettins told TV3 news he was given half an hour to get out of Honiara on an RNZAF flight after wounding an islander from Malaita in a fight that morning.

"As a result of his blood being spilt, I had probably had an hour's life expectancy."

The aviation security consultant said that when the Air Force plane arrived Malaitans were gathering with their guns outside the terminal.

The High Commission had received a written death threat against Mr Gettins, and instructed him to leave the country.

He believed the High Commission had saved his life.

The ministry's head of security, Kathy Moriarty, is in the Solomons assessing security at staff residences.

A "rigorous" review of security was done at New Zealand's 48 diplomatic posts in 43 countries after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Kate Lackey, deputy secretary of corporate services, said some changes were made and some security was upgraded.

But the review had found that most countries had appropriate security.

In the Solomons, where Ms Nichols was killed apparently either leaving or going to her car from her home, the ministry had believed that with 24-hour security guards on duty staff were reasonably safe.

She would give no details of which other posts were deemed the most dangerous, saying security issues and the possibility of terrorist attacks forbade it.

News of the Nichols murder has shaken diplomats at New Zealand's remote outposts.

"We're all pretty shattered by the news of our colleague's death in Honiara," said Denise Almao, Ambassador to Brazil.

Ministry spokeswoman Belinda Brown was in Saudi Arabia in the late 1990s, and yesterday spoke of the threats diplomats faced in hotspots.

"Every staff member's been somewhere in a dangerous post in their career ... It's something you know about when you join the service."