Olivia's dad quizzed on fingernails

The fingernails of teenager Olivia Hope and the question of whether they were too "stubby" to gouge the inside of a yacht's trapdoor became key issues at the Marlborough Sounds murder trial yesterday.

Central to the crown case against Scott Watson is the forward hatch removed from his yacht, Blade, which has 176 scratches on the rubber lining that are consistent with fingernail scratch marks.

Watson, aged 27 and formerly of Picton, denies murdering Olivia, aged 17, and her friend, Ben Smart, 21.

The Blenheim friends disappeared after partying at Furneaux Lodge in Marlborough Sounds early on New Year's Day, 1998, and their bodies have never been found.

Olivia Hope's father, Gerald Hope, told the High Court at Wellington yesterday that his daughter loved music and played the piano twice a day, "apart from on Christmas and New Year's Day."

Asked to describe her fingernails by defence counsel Mike Antunovic, Mr Hope said they were "cropped in line with the end of her digit" to avoid a tapping noise on the piano keys.

Antunovic: "So she kept her fingernails cut closely fairly regularly?"

Hope: "No. Not to the quick. There was enough cuticle matter to give her an elegant set of nails. She kept a fine balance between keeping a nice set of hands and being able to play the piano easily."

Antunovic: "Do you remember describing her nails to police as 'stubby'?"

Hope: "No. If that is a word used by me I find it difficult to believe."

Earlier, Mr Hope told the court about the last time he saw his daughter alive, and how he warned her of potential danger as she left for her three-day charter boat holiday with her older sister, Amelia, and friends.

He told her to drink alcohol sensibly and with food, not to swim at night, and be cautious when travelling to and from the yacht in the dark..

Her response was: "Don't worry about me, Dad. I'm off to university next year. Trust me," Mr Hope said.

He was confident about Olivia holidaying without adults because she had spent several boating holidays in the Sounds with her parents.

Olivia was a responsible young woman, and he knew their hired skipper, Jeffrey Fyfe, and was aware he had a cellphone on board.

He last saw Olivia during the afternoon of December 30.

"I was mowing the lawns and she walked in with two bags of groceries and said, 'Hi.' She left for the wharf in the mid- to late-afternoon with her 21-year-old sister, in their Morris 1100."

Using the cellphone on the boat, Olivia called her parents at their home between 7 am and 7.30 am the following day. Mr Hope said she told her mother, Jan Hope, "they were having a great time and everybody was having a swim."