Trades Hall bombing suspect to give DNA

A key suspect in Wellington’s Trades Hall bombing will provide a DNA sample 35 years after the unsolved crime.

An investigation into the 1984 bombing, which killed Ernie Abbott, caretaker of the Vivian St building, has been renewed by detectives.

Evidence pointing to a key suspect and details of the bomb’s components were among new information revealed in an episode of Cold Case, which aired last night.

Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee told Stuff the key suspect was among a number who had agreed to give a DNA sample. This will be compared with an analysis of bomb materials still held as evidence.

‘‘We’ve made approaches to him in the past. He’s pretty old now, and previously he has refused . . . We’re keeping an open mind,’’ McKee said.

The detective decided to revisit the case 18 months ago, after police received an item of ‘‘significance’’ similar to a key piece of the bomb.

The bomb was constructed with an old stove timer, 9-volt battery, an unknown explosive, and one or two bottles of accelerant – probably petrol – of which one was a Teal soft-drink bottle.

Lining the suitcase containing the bomb were pages 9, 10, 19 and 20 of a June 1977 Evening Post.

A mercury switch, activated after the timer counted 60 minutes, connected a circuit and exploded the bomb when Abbott picked up the suitcase.

Such a bomb required considerable expertise. Among items found in a search of the key suspect’s home in a Wellington seaside suburb were safety fuses, detonators, a torch missing a battery, four Teal soft-drink bottles and a copy of the same June 1977 edition of the Evening Post – without the relevant pages.

The suspect had experience gold prospecting in the South Island, and when interviewed in 1984, he described himself as an expert in explosives.

He also had a violent past, a history of redundancies, and was thought to be anti-union.

The suspected motive for the bombing, which came during a period of particularly fraught industrial relations, was a hatred of unions.

‘‘He fitted that profile and was exposed to and had access to explosives and the components of the bomb,’’ McKee said.

‘‘He fitted that profile and ... had access to explosives.’’ Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee