Staff, boaties tell of events at inlet

By Eugene Bingham

A Furneaux Lodge barmaid saw celebrations turn to fighting before one of the brawlers invited her for a drink, the Scott Watson double-murder trial heard yesterday.

Karyn Louise Anderson said a man known to her as a butcher named Mike asked her to come to his boat, but she declined the invitation. "My father was there at the time and we brushed it off."

Miss Anderson had travelled from Sydney to give evidence in the High Court at Wellington yesterday in the second week of the trial.

Watson has denied murdering Blenheim friends Olivia Hope and Ben Smart, who disappeared from Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Day 1998.

Miss Anderson, her father and mother travelled to the lodge in Endeavour Inlet on New Year's Eve in the family launch, Panache. They went to help staff at the lodge.

During the night, Miss Anderson worked behind the main bar, which she described as very busy. About 3 am, fights broke out.

"There were several flare-ups that security got on to. There were substantial fights," she said. At one stage, she intervened to discourage fighters, including some she had served.

Miss Anderson agreed with defence counsel Mike Antunovic that one of these people was Mike, a butcher, who asked her to go to his boat for a drink.

Her father, Timothy, said he had cooked sausages at the lodge for guests until about 3 am. He helped clean up for a while, and then thought about heading back to the launch. Mr Anderson said they were intending to catch a ride with his son, Donald, who had been operating a courtesy water taxi for the party-goers whose boats were moored off the lodge.

"At about 3.30 I decided to round up my troops and head back to the boat, but as we were saying our goodbyes my son, Don, knocked off for a brief break."

At that point Guy Wallace, who had been working behind the bar, offered to take Mr Anderson, his wife and Miss Anderson back to the Panache.

The group walked down to the jetty and took a water taxi out to the launch. About seven or eight people were "hanging around the jetty" but no one else hopped on board before they left.

Mr Anderson told the court this must have been about 4 am because soon after they arrived back at the boat, his daughter asked what the time was and it was 4.15.

The Crown alleges Mr Wallace dropped Olivia and Ben on Watson's yacht on a subsequent water taxi journey some time after 4 am.

Another man who assisted the lodge staff that night, Ronald Bernard Farrell, gave evidence that his 25ft yacht was moored off the lodge overnight.

Mr Farrell said he and his wife slept on shore in the staff accommodation and did not check their yacht until the afternoon of New Year's Day.

When he did so, there were no signs anyone had been on board.

"It was shut up but it was not locked. It was as I had left it," said Mr Farrell.

Many boaties whose vessels stayed in the inlet during New Year were called to give evidence about their movements and to say if they had seen a ketch sought by police early in the inquiry.

Mr Wallace told police he dropped the young pair at a distinctive two-masted ketch, but the Crown says there is no evidence such a ketch existed and that the friends were in fact dropped at Watson's one-masted sloop.

One of the boaties, Terry Moran, told the court he had not seen the ketch described by Mr Wallace while he was at the lodge.

But under cross-examination, Mr Moran said he had spent about five or six hours ashore.

Mr Antunovic: While you were ashore between 10 pm and 3 or 4 am, you would not have known what other boats were arriving at Furneaux, nor could you say what boats left Furneaux. Agree?

Mr Moran: Agree.

The jury is expected to hear evidence this week from a further 70 boaties who were moored off the lodge.