Water-taxi man sticks with his ketch evidence

By Alison Horwood and Eugene Bingham

WELLINGTON - The man who dropped Olivia Hope and Ben Smart at their last known destination still insists that the couple boarded a ketch.

Water-taxi driver Guy Wallace told the Scott Watson double-murder trial yesterday that the boat was a two-masted vessel, between 11.4m and 12.2m long.

The Crown has told the jury there is no compelling evidence that the ketch exists, and that Mr Wallace left the couple at Watson's 8.6m single-masted sloop.

But under questioning from prosecutor Paul Davison, QC, Mr Wallace went into detail about the ketch's design and fittings.

He said the yacht was well-maintained and built of timber with a thick blue stripe on the hull, which had several round portholes with brass surrounds. It was rafted in a group of between three and five other vessels, including a large launch he called a "gin palace."

Numerous ropes hung at the back of the vessel, and it had a bowsprit. The hull was rounded, not slim like a racing yacht, said Mr Wallace.

The port side of his Naiad water taxi pulled up to the vessel's port side after a two-minute journey from the yacht Tamarack, where Olivia and Ben had boarded looking for somewhere to sleep.

They accepted a berth from a lone man who was a passenger on the water taxi, said Mr Wallace.

Olivia was the first to board, stepping on to the pontoon of the Naiad and then the deck of the yacht. Ben was next, handing her something bulky like a handbag or sleeping bag before following

The man who accompanied them was aged about 32, 1.73m to 1.75m tall, with dark, unkempt hair, shoulder-length at the back but shortish on top. He appeared to have several days' growth of stubble, and wore a shirt and jeans.

Mr Wallace told the court he had served the same man in the Furneaux Lodge bar several hours earlier.

He had introduced himself by name, though Mr Wallace could remember only that the man came from Picton.

"His eyes did not appear very trustworthy," said Mr Wallace. "They were pretty slanty, really, not fully open."

Asked what it was that made the man stand out, Mr Wallace said: "He was a bit scruffy."

Earlier in the day, water-taxi passenger Hayden Morresey continued his evidence from Tuesday, telling the court that the boat he saw Olivia and Ben get on to was not Watson's sloop, Blade.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Mike Antunovic, he agreed that he knew it was not the right boat immediately when police showed him a photograph of Blade.

Mr Morresey said Blade was too small, did not have a stripe of colour on the hull and was too low in the water.

Mr Morresey told the court on Tuesday that Olivia and Ben were dropped at a ketch, but he admitted yesterday that he never saw a second mast.

He told crown prosecutor Kieran Raftery that he presumed the boat was a ketch only because of the ropes dangling from the mast that he saw.

In his first police statements of January 7, 8 and 30, 1998, he did not mention the word ketch or make any reference to a second mast.

His first reference to police about a two-masted boat was on February 8, after a TV One news item featuring Mr Wallace and himself.

His statement, read to the court by Mr Raftery, said: "Despite having stated recently that I saw a ketch I am certain the boat had a mast at the back and there could have been one at the front. I did not see one but there were dangling ropes at the back mast going some way up."

Justice Heron allowed Mr Antunovic to cross-examine Mr Morresey again, because of the new evidence about the television interview.

Mr Morresey agreed that one of the topics he had discussed with the reporter was whether the boat was a ketch.

Mr Antunovic: Did you describe this ketch to her?

Mr Morresey: No, not really.

Mr Antunovic: Well, do you remember saying to her it was quite a big boat and had quite a lot of ropes coming off it and it had two masts?

Mr Morresey: Yeah.

Mr Antunovic: And do you remember saying, "I reckon the ketch does exist though, I reckon I'm right"?

Mr Morresey: Yeah.