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The
Christchurch Civic Creche Case |
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Suburban Newspapers
consulting editor Pat Booth writes about Sir Thomas Thorp and shares letters
from the mailbag about bird flu and graffiti. Booth Okay, so I've
disagreed quite violently and publicly with a few judges in my time, but - no
surprise - I agree entirely with Sir Thomas Thorp . A former High Court
judge and chairman of the parole board, he believes there could be up to 20
innocents in jail - as innocent as Arthur Thomas was, in a case which fell
outside Sir Thomas' self-defined brief. He has produced this
verdict after two years of privately studying in depth 53 claims of innocence
between 1995 and 2002 (Thomas was arrested in 1970, pardoned in 1979). Among
the cases was the notorious verdict of child molestation against Peter Ellis
in the Christchurch creche case. In an earlier special
report on what I believe was a shocking miscarriage of justice, Sir Thomas
wrote: "It would in my view be difficult to argue against the existence
of a serious doubt about the safety of the convictions." Legal speak
for: "He could be innocent." His advocacy is worth
listening to. Sir Thomas knows the law industry. He spent 31 years of his
life arguing for guilt - in prosecution work - before becoming a judge. He studied trends in
Britain in his latest work and, on the basis of similar figures there, he
speaks of up to 20 possible cases of wrongful imprisonment here. After finding New
Zealand examples where he believes further "careful investigation"
was justified, he now urges setting up an independent authority to do just
that, seeking out and advising on actual or potential miscarriages of
justice. A long overdue
development. I wish him well, but advise him not to hold his breath. Based on the eight
years of experience I shared with Dr Jim Sprott and others in our
investigations of the Thomas affair and which led to his pardon, I feel that
police, lawyers, attorney-generals and the whole justice system does not take
kindly to suggestions it could have stuffed up. Over seven years of our
campaign, key figures in the legal process met every new piece of significant
evidence with a curt: "You're wrong and we will prove you're
wrong!" They didn't and Arthur Thomas was freed. It took a crusty,
retired Australian judge to lead a distinguished inquiry panel which said
Thomas was framed - which meant that something like 11 New Zealand judges had
got the case wrong. Maybe the fact that he
is so much part of the law system and has such impeccable qualifications will
give Sir Thomas an inside running in convincing people who should need no
convincing that this is an important advance. It will pick up the
burden that laymen have had to carry to win an innocent Arthur Thomas his
freedom and work to see there are no more victims like him - or Peter Ellis. To contact Pat Booth, email: offpat/@snl.co.nz. All
replies are open for publication unless marked Not For Publication. |
