ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE Depositions From Crew Before Ship Sailed

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 3

ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE Depositions From Crew Before Ship Sailed

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 6. A 23-year-old ship’s steward was yesterday remanded to appear in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court on Friday on a charge of attempted murder.

Keith Charles Johns, chief steward on the motor vessel, Durango, appeared before justices of the peace, Messrs M. W. Leaman and S. Mather, in the court on Saturday.

Mr M. A. Bungay, appears for Johns and Detective-Inspector K. J. Hamilton is prosecuting for the police.

The hearing lasted almost 12 hours. Bail was discussed in chambers, but Johns was remanded in custody. The 9800-ton Durango sailed from Wellington for Panama on Thursday night. It returned on Friday morning when a steward, Anthony McGuire, aged 23, was admitted to Wellington Hospital with a gunshot wound. Sir Walter Nash and his sister, Miss Emily Nash, are passengers aboard the ship. The master of the Durango. Jakes Leon Perkins, said Johns was at a farewell party on Thursday for Sir Walter Nash and his sister. Perkins said he believed the party started about 7 p.m. and guests returned ashore about 8.15 p.m., before the ship left Wellington.

Disturbed “About 2.20 a.m. I was disturbed in bed when the chief steward woke me. He said: “I’ve just shot somebody.” Captain Perkins said he went to the bridge and sent the second officer to investigate the claim. The second officer returned about five or 10 minutes later with a .22 automatic Bersa pistol. He said he turned the ship back to Wellington at 2.35 p.m., nine miles south of Horseshoe rock, 66 miles from ■Wellington. Cross-examined by Mr Bungay witness said Johns was not officious, violent, aggressive, impetuous or unreasonable.

He had never seen Johns intoxicated. He drank very rarely. McGuire had been punished for offences but he did not know if he bore any grudge against Johns. McGuire was bordering on getting a bad discharge. “I Shot Him” William Roy Strevens, aged 30, the second officer, said Johns came to the bridge at 2.27 a.m. and said he had shot somebody. He thought Johns had been drinking. Johns said: “He had a gun and I had a gun and I shot him.”

Just as he and Johns were going into Johns's cabin Johns said. “He barged in with a knife and so I shot him.”

In the cabin McGuire was lying on the settee with a wound in his left side, moaning. Johns opened his safe and surrendered the pistol. James Risk, aged 27, chief refrigeration officer, said he had gone to bed about J 1 p.m. after the ship left Wellington.

Johns had woken him at about 2.40 a.m. by shaking him. “Wake up, Jimmy,” he said. “I’ve shot McGuire. Could I have a cigarette.” Johns seemed to be in a state of shock. Risk said he could not say whether Johns was affected by drink. “I have only seen him drunk once before.” McGuire had gone to his cabin, Johns had told him. Risk said. He said he was either .going to see the captain or had been to see the captain. “I saw him at 5 o'clock. 1 told him not to worry,” Risk said. Beating L T p In reply to Mr Bungay's cross-examination, Risk said McGuire told him in Suva that he had bought a Fijian back to the ship for the pur-

pose of beating up the chief i steward. McGuire had either offered: money or drink to the Fijian.; Risk said. There was animosity between McGuire and Johns. Risk said. “I don’t think the Fijian came back to the ship,” Risk said. “When 1 came on board I let the Chief Steward know what was going on. I put him on his guard.” Theodore Francis Tyrrell, aged 47, Chief Engineer on the Durango, told Inspector Hamilton he had not seen Johns on the ship between 6 p.m. and 2.25 in the morning The steward’s boy came to his cabin, Tyrrell said, and he got up and got dressed and went to the Chief Steward’s cabin. “Playing Cards” Johns said he was playing cards when the door burst open and McGuire burst in. Johns had told him (Tyrrell): “I think McGuire had something in his hand.” “It was all a bit sketchy after that,” Tyrrell said. Tyrrell said he spoke to the captain and then went back to bed. After 5 in the morning “Johns came to my cabin and asked me ‘what’s going to happen to me?’ ” Tyrrell said. “He added ‘it was a case of self defence.' He seemed agitated and in a state of shock. “He could have been drinking but he didn’t give me the impression of being under the influence."

Tyrrell said Johns did not associate with McGuire. He was not aware of any animosity between the two.

A Friend Gordon Stephen Joseph Forester, aged 16, a stewards’ boy, said he was a friend of Johns, who also knew his family. He said he went to a farewell function for Sir Walter Nash, where he was on duty with Johns. About halfan-hour after the ship sailed, Sir Walter Nash, his sister, another passenger, Johns and other stewards were in the lounge. Forester said they were talking to Sir Walter Nash and drinking. Johns was drinking whisky and soda. “In the course of the night I served him five singles,” he said. Forester said he believed Sir Walter Nash went to bed after midnight. He said that he went to John’s cabin and went to sleep on his bed. ■When Johns arrived at the cabin McGuire was there, he said. Forrester said he went to his own cabin, but later returned to the Chief Steward’s cabin to ask McGuire to leave.

“There was a feeling of trouble in the air. There was nothing said, but I would just rather have seen McGuire in his own cabin than in the chief’s.” he said. He said he saw a gun on the chief steward. It was in a cloth holster and tucked into his trousers. Forrester said he asked Johns to give him the gun. Johns replied: “No, it’s okay. I’m not going to do anything with it."

I Johns later fired the gun into a cupboard in the seciond steward’s cabin. 1 Forrester took the gun from Johns and asked him for the keys to his safe. He locked the gun in the safe. He picked the holster up in the alley outside the door Johns hardly spoke anything after that.

He asked Forrester to go and tell the Chief Engineer he was wanted.

I Johns said to the three of them “stand by me.” “We made up a story that the Chief Steward and I were playing cards and McGuire came into the cabin, shouted at the Chief Steward and dived towards him. “Whose suggestion was this?” “Mine,” replied Forrester. “Why did you do this?” “It was the first thing that came into my head. It was jo save the Chief Steward. He was much more worth saving than McGuire was. Four Agreed “The four of us, the second E’eward Osborne, Larenski, Johns and myself agreed on tiis,” said Forrester. Johns bought the gun in Argentina for his own personal protection and in case any of the crew attacked him in the bond room. Cross-examined by Mr Bungay, Forester said he intended to give evidence in the Supreme Court hearing. He said he did not intend returning to the United Kingdom.

He gave two statements to the police yesterday. The first was the concocted story. About 1 a.m. this morning he gave another statement to the police. Asked by Mr Bungay why he gave the second statement he said he had been weakened by Detective Parker and Detective Toomey. Alexander Lurinski, aged 30, assistant steward, said that after the fa swell function he sat in the lounge drinking and talking to Sir Walter Nash.

Johns must have had at least five whiskies. The witness had about three gins. The chief steward showed Sir Walter Nash to his cabin and then they had another couple of drinks and left the lounge. Lurinski went to the second steward’s cabin. The second steward, Mr Osborne was with Lurinski. Lurinski left to go to the toilet and when he returned Johns was talking to Osborne. Johns left and then came back and said something about shooting McGuire. Lurinski told him not to do anything so stupid. He pulled the gun out of his belt and said he was “not kidding” and that this was the gun he had bought in Argentina. Lurinski asked him for the gun and hid it under a pile of jackets. He told Johns to go and tell McGuire to go below and after that he would give him the gun back.

He came back in and said “McGuire’s all right” and Lurinski gave him back the gun.

He went and got Forrester, as he thought that as he was a friend of Johns he would be able to prevent him getting into trouble. When he came back, Johns was swearing and shortly afterwards mentioned McGuire. Lurinski went to Johns’s cabin and opened it up and saw McGuire sitting on the settee.

He said to McGuire “Come on, Tony, go down below.” There was a noise like a shotgun from behind him. He thought that Johns must have another gun.

McGuire grasped his waistline and made a moaning noise.

On Settee

Lurinski went to Johns’s settee and stayed with him until he left the ship next morning. Cross-examined by Mr Bungay, he said he had signed a statement earlier giving a completely different account of the matter. Johns told him McGuire had broken into his cabin and called him a bastard. Lurinski told him this was untrue. Johns suggested Lurinski would say he ran into the cabin after hearing the shot.

The second steward, Patrick Herbert Osborne, aged 37, said that after hearing the shots from Johns’s cabin he found McGuire doubled up over the settee. Johns had a revolver in his hand. To Mr Bungay he said that during the tea adjournment he had discussed the hearing with other witnesses.