Ref: A00-300995 Case No. 871626 Macpherson II
Volume III, Pages 20-24, Monday 12th June, 1989
(In the presence of the jury)
PETER BERNARD O'NEILL: Sworn
Examined by Mr. Temple
Q. Is your name Peter Bernard O'Neill? A. Yes.
Q. What is your present occupation? A. I am proprietor of a
chauffeur company.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: A private hire company? A. Yes.
MR. TEMPLE: Indeed, you have been so employed for some years?
A. Yes.
Q. I want to take you back prior to that present employment,
back to about 1981. For whom did you work then? A. I worked
for a company called Armalite Limited.
Q. In about 1981 approximately, working as a vehicle road tester
for Armalite, did you have occasion to meet the defendant,
Mr. Koupparis? A. Yes, I did.
Q. For whom was he working when you first met him? A. Alcom
Limited.
Q. After that initial meeting, was there a long period of time
when the two of you effectively lost touch one with the other
and you did not have any further contact with Mr. Koupparis
until April 1987? A. That is correct.
Q. I just want you to tell us about that. The first initial
recontact on approximately 30th April 1987, how did he
contact you? A. By telephone.
Q. What did he want? A. He wanted me to pick him up and take
him round London for the morning.
Q. Were you prepared to do that? A. Yes.
Q. I need not trouble you with the detail, but if anyone else
asks you can sketch in the detail? A. Yes, certainly.
Q. After that first meeting on 30th April, was there a further
contact on 12th May? A. Yes, there was.
Q. Again taking it shortly, what did he want? A. Well, he
wanted me to pick him up - no, sorry, he initially wanted me
to take him down to Penzance in Cornwall. I believe that was
what he wanted at that particular time.
Q. In fact you were committed for that particular day? A. Yes,
I had a client in so I couldn't take him down there.
Q. I think it came to this: you gave him the good advice that
it would be quicker and cheaper by train? A. Yes, I did say
it would come to quite a lot of money.
Q. More importantly, two days later, on 14th May - I want to
spend a bit more time on this - again did he telephone you?
A. Yes, he did.
Q. At what time? A. Roughly about seven o'clock in the
morning.
Q. What was the purpose of the telephone call? A. Was to pick
him up from his mother's place and take him into London. He
did mention a couple of other places he might want to go
but ---
Q. Did he give you an indication or did he tell you in precise
terms where his mother's home was? A. He told me exactly
where the address was.
Q. Fenwick Road in East Dulwich? A. Yes.
Q. Did he tell you why he wanted to go to the West End?
A. Yes, he said - well, he mentioned - he asked me what time
the shops opened and the embassies opened, which I told him.
I said the shops opened roughly about nine o'clock and I
wasn't too sure about the embassies.
Q. Following through the course of the morning, what time did
you arrive at Fenwick Road? A. I think it was about nine
o'clock.
Q. And the car you were driving? A. A navy Mercedes.
Q. Was there a delay before Mr. Koupparis and yourself left?
A. Yes, there was.
Q. In approximate terms, what time do you think you would have
left Fenwick Road? A. I think it was something like half
past nine, ten o'clock; I cannot remember.
Q. When you left what were his instructions about as to the
route? Where were you going at this stage? A. He wanted
to know if I knew Park Street in London, which I said yes, I
did.
Q. Did you? A. Yes, I did.
Q. Before you reached Park Street, did you stop off at Victoria
Station? A. Yes, I did.
Q. Did he tell you why? A. Yes, he wanted to get some
passport photographs done, so I suggested that that would be
the most convenient place to get them done on the way to Park
Street.
Q. Just have a look at page 65 of the document bundle. Do you
recognise that? A. Yes, they are the ones.
Q. They are the photographs? A. Yes.
MR. TEMPLE: For your Lordship's purposes, those strips of
photographs were found in Mr. Koupparis's briefcase taken
from him on the 14th.
MR. JUSTICE MACPHERSON: That is the briefcase you have seen,
ladies and gentlemen.
MR. TEMPLE: The photographs having been obtained, off you go to
Park Street. When you got to Park Street, did he point out
to you any particular place? A. Yes, well he - I think he
mentioned the number, No. 2 [sic] Park Street, which I cannot
remember, which was the Cypriot High Commission, where we
stopped.
Q. Then he got out: did he tell you why? A. Yes, he said
that he had to get his passport sorted out.
Q. Whilst he was in the High Commission, did you remain in the
car? A. Yes.
A. About ten minutes later was Mr. Koupparis being held against
the railings? A. Correct.
MR. BECKMAN: My Lord, I have no questions.
(The witness withdrew)
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