McKAY FOR TRIAL

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 3

McKAY FOR TRIAL

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 8. Kenneth M?rvyn McKay planned to marry Mrs Anne Elizabeth Kievet at the end of this year, according to a statement from McKay read by a de-tective-sergeant, Brian David Mills, in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today. McKay, a 37-year-old driver, who is charged with the murder of Mrs Kievet, mother of three children, at Henderson on May 2, was committed by Mr E. F. Rothwell, S.M., for trial. The hearing lasted five days and 54 Crown witnesses were called. McKay’s statement said he had not woken up until about noon on May 2 and he had not seen Mrs Kievet that morning. He had no knowledge where she was. The statement said McKay knew Mrs Kievet’s husband, Peter Kievet.

McKay claimed, in the statement, that Kievet had tried to run him down in his car one day last year. He also said that in telephone

conversations Kievet had threatened to kill him several times when McKay was with Mrs Kievet.

McKay said he and Mrs Kievet had been threatened by Kievet, who had a knife, as they sat in a car outside a hotel.

In evidence, Mills said that during interviews McKay had several times said “somebody had it in for him.” The witness said that on May 5 he went to McKay’s home. McKay was in bed. He said he had not seen Mrs Kievet since early April. McKay mentioned that he and Mrs Kievet intended to marry at the end of the year. Mills said he asked McKay if he had seen or heard anything near his house on May 2 which could help the police in their inquiries. McKay said he had been sick in bed with influenza and stomach ulcers since the previous Saturday and had not been out of the house. He had slept very heavily on Sunday night through to noon on Monday.

McKay said he got the scratches on the backs of his hands at work.

McKay was shown basketball boots, a singlet, a pair of trousers, rubber gloves and socks taken from the Oratia stream. He admitted

the socks, trousers and boots were his.

McKay said that the last time he had seen the clothes was Anzac Day, in a shed at the back of his house. On May 6, said Mills, he visited McKay again. McKay appeared to be upset by a newspaper tqport that human remains had been found in the stream. McKay said: “Everything looks so bad when parts of her body are found on our section. Everything is pointing to me and somebody has definitely got it in for me.” He then began to cry and said he loved Mrs Kievet that he felt alone and he had noone to talk to or confide in. On May 9, McKay was again questioned, said Mills. He again insisted that he had not been out of bed since he was sick on Saturday night When McKay was told that a witness claimed to have seen him on the banks of the Oratia stream on May 2, he said the witness was lying.

McKay was also told that Kievet was in Australia when Mrs Kievet went missing and could not have been involved in her disappearance. “He said that Kievet could easily have got a couple of friends to do it,” said Mills.