Witnesses describe drunken frolics

By Eugene Bingham and Alison Horwood

WELLINGTON - A friend of Olivia Hope and Ben Smart stumbled around Furneaux Lodge and fell into a creek after drinking all through the night the young pair disappeared.

When asked how much alcohol he had consumed that night, the Christchurch student said: "A fair bit."

Duncan Wallace Anderson told the Scott Watson double murder trial he ferried two groups of friends to Furneaux Lodge on New Year's Eve 1998 before rafting up to Tamarack, the yacht chartered by Olivia and her friends.

Asked where everyone was going to sleep that night, he said: "Where they fell."

That afternoon he had stopped to talk to Ben, who was fishing with friends off Edgecombe Pt at the entrance to Endeavour Inlet.

Later, he used his runabout to drop the Tamarack crew ashore at the lodge.

"[Olivia] was on the first trip about 5.30 or 6 o'clock," said Mr Anderson.

He spent most of the night in the garden bar, then met some friends in the main bar and walked with them along a track to a bach around the bay.

Part of the way there, he decided to go back to the lodge, but stumbled off the track and into a creek.

Eventually, he took a water taxi back to his boat, where three people were already asleep.

Mr Anderson noticed six people sleeping on the sides, bow and stern of Tamarack, but none of them was Olivia or Ben.

Asked what time he had returned to his boat, Mr Anderson said: "I wouldn't have a clue."

He thought it was getting light, however.

Two men also told the court about drunken men acting inappropriately towards women they were with at the New Year's Eve celebration.

It is the Crown's contention that Watson stood out at the lodge because he was on his own and was making sexual advances towards women.

It also alleges Olivia was the victim of his desire for a sexual conquest and that he then killed the young pair.

Gregory Maurice Surgenor told the jury a man who introduced himself as Bob was trying to pick up his girlfriend during a conversation just after midnight.

He described Bob as about 6ft 2in (188cm) with brown, tidy, short hair, and wearing a sweatshirt with a yachting logo.

Asked under cross-examination from defence counsel Nicolette Levy if the man's behaviour was sleazy, Mr Surgenor said: "Yes, a bit sleazy."

He and his girlfriend eventually gave the man the slip "because we did not really like him."

Earlier, a Christchurch law clerk told the court of an encounter with a scruffy man staring at his younger sister.

Matthew Leigh Somerville-Smith said he and his sister went to the toilet in the lodge's main bar about 3 am.

Mr Somerville-Smith said as he walked out of the toilet area, he noticed the man looking at his sister.

Asked what he meant, Mr Somerville-Smith said: "The way a drunk man looks at a young female."

Nicolette Levy: Did he appear to be embarrassed by you seeing him?

Mr Somerville-Smith: No.

Under questioning from prosecutor Nicola Crutchley, Mr Somerville-Smith gave evidence about hearing a male voice screaming in the hour before sunrise on New Year's Day.

"There was still a bit of noise around the bay, and I definitely heard some screaming." He did not know if it was "drunk people carrying on" or something else.

He thought the noise came from shore, "but there's no way of telling."

Lance James Johnston, of Paremata, Wellington, was among the witnesses shown a police drawing of the mystery ketch and asked if he had seen anything similar in the area over the New Year.

He told the jury he had seen a boat with similarities on December 30, as he passed through Queen Charlotte Sound towards Picton near the entrance to Endeavour Inlet.

But Mr Johnston said he was "pretty sure" the yacht had one mast.

Under cross-examination, Mr Johnston said the yacht was similar to the police drawing because it had a blue stripe, portholes, a white sail, and was low in the water.

Carol Rae Lobb, of Wellington, said she saw Watson's yacht, Blade, arrive about 5 pm to 6 pm and raft up with two other boats.

The court also heard evidence about boats leaving the lodge in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Christopher Tony Gifford said he saw a one-masted yacht leaving the area about 3.45 am.

But under cross-examination, he was asked about a statement he made to police in February last year in which he said he heard a launch leaving the bay about 1.30 am while he was fishing.

In the statement, parts of which were read to the court, he had told police that boat was the only vessel he noted leaving the bay.