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The
Dominion Post
August 9, 2003
The book has been written
Letter to the Editor
by Norman Orange (Palmerston North)
The conviction of Arthur Allan Thomas in 1970 for the Crewe murders and his
subsequent pardon was a turning point for many New Zealanders, because it
raised serious doubts about the integrity of our justice system, such as
whether police were always honest with their evidence and our judicial system
was capable of ensuring justice was served.
Notwithstanding the groundswell of discontent about Thomas' conviction, our
judicial system, after three attempts, failed to administer justice. To my
dismay, and I guess many others, it took an itinerant author and our pugilist
prime minister to reveal and acknowledge the truth.
Since then, other major murder trials -- such as that concerning David Bain
-- have failed to convince many reasonable people that justice has been
served.
I have purposely omitted the Christchurch Civic Creche case because I don't
equate it to the Thomas case. Rather, it has much in common with the Lindy
Chamberlain trial in Western
Australia. In that miscarriage of justice we saw
media, a community and police caught up in the hysteria of prejudice and fear
because the Chamberlains were Jehovah's Witnesses.
Likewise, Peter Ellis is perceived to be different and again, people's fears
and prejudices contributed to what many reasonable and sensible people
consider to be a gross miscarriage of justice.
It is not just the integrity of the justice system that we should be
concerned about but equally, the integrity of the police, the parents, the
children and the social workers. The book has been written. All it requires
is for the justice minister and his colleagues to have the courage to
instigate an inquiry that will allow this shameful issue to be put to rest.
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