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The Christchurch Civic
Creche Case |
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BLAME THE SYSTEM: Keith Hunter in
his Auckland office where he researched and wrote Trial By Trickery on the
Scott Watson murder case. Photo: Peter Drury/Waikato Times An Auckland author who is fiercely
critical of the prosecution of Scott Watson is pushing for an overhaul of the
country's justice system, and has found some support for his cause from MPs.
Immediately left of Keith Hunter's desk is a sea chart of the Marlborough
Sounds - the site 9 1/2 years ago of one of the most controversial and
saddest murder mysteries of our time. The murders of Ben Smart and Olivia
Hope, whose bodies have never been found. Hunter, 64, has spent many
thousands of hours in this sparse Auckland office in his Herne Bay home
researching the fallout from the murders. It's a humble location from which
to suggest a revamp of a country's justice system, but that's exactly what
Hunter wants. He says there is no doubt at all
Scott Watson, who was convicted of the pair's murder in 1999, did not kill
the young couple. Miscarriages of justice are huge
news following David Bain's release from prison this week, after the Privy
Council quashed his murder convictions. By now Bain is enjoying some fishing
with his supporter Joe Karam. Bring up Bain's case - he was
convicted in 1995 of the murders of five family members - and it's not long
before others come up too. Southland man Rex Haig, whose
murder conviction was quashed after he served 10 years. - Peter Ellis, now
paroled, who was convicted of molesting children at a Christchurch creche,
and David Tamihere, convicted of killing two Swedish tourists in the
Coromandel. John Barlow, who was jailed for the murder of Wellington
businessmen Eugene and Gene Thomas, is making a second appeal against his
conviction. Retired High Court Judge Thomas
Thorp said in a report last year there might be up to 20 innocent people in
New Zealand jails. He called for changes to the justice system, a call Waikato-based
Green MP and justice spokesman Nandor Tanczos reiterated this week. The basis for Tanczos' comments
was Hunter's book, Trial by Trickery, published in March and mailed to all
MPs with a letter calling for an inquiry into Watson's conviction. The book dissects the police case
against Watson, which Hunter says was based on lies and deception. His book,
based on extensive research of transcripts of the three-month trial, and
police files, pillories then Detective Inspector Rob Pope, who led the inquiry
and is now deputy commissioner of police. Pope won't talk about the book.
Approached by the Waikato Times, a spokesman said Pope wouldn't be
commenting. Despite the damning nature of the book the spokesman said Pope
felt he "couldn't add anything". Hunter, a TV documentary and film
maker, tells the story of a top cop brought in to lead the inquiry, who he
says within days picked Watson as his man and never deviated. His book
repeatedly gives examples where he says police misinformed the public, witnesses
and courts about factual information relating to the case. It repeats
transcripts from police interviews and accuses police of manipulating and
bullying witnesses so their statements promoted police preconceptions. He
accuses police of destroying Watson's reputation with press releases so by
the time he went to trial he was considered a "low life". The Government is reviewing the
justice system. On the back of the Bain bombshell, Hunter's claims may yet
get some traction. He says he's not targeting Watson's
case alone, but the system, because of his disgust at what he encountered. "I'm a changed man as a
result of this. I was brought up in the '40s and '50s to trust the system. I
have always been reasonably naive I guess. I'm not naive any more. This one
has changed my mind about the system itself. The system is sick." In the blurry early hours of New
Year's Day 1998 the party is finally winding down. About 1600 people have
partied much of the day at Marlborough Sounds holiday resort Furneax Lodge at
Endeavour Inlet. Now, many are looking for beds for the night, including a
striking blonde teenager, Olivia Hope, and her boyish 21-year-old companion,
Ben Smart. They take a water taxi to the 9m
yacht Tamarack, which Olivia had chartered along with friends and arrived in
earlier that day. She is angry when she discovers
her sleeping bag is gone and someone has taken her berth. She and Ben return
to the water taxi to try to find another place to sleep. One of the six
people on the water taxi - a mystery man - offers the pair a bed for the
night, and the water taxi heads to his yacht. Ben and Olivia board together.
They are never seen again. After an unsuccessful three-day
search by Blenheim police, Detective Inspector Rob Pope arrives from
Christchurch to take over the investigation. Five months later, the team
arrests 26-year-old Picton man Scott Watson for the murders of Hope and
Smart. Hunter, who began his career in
1966 as a researcher on the current affairs television programme Town and
Around, has directed many television documentaries as well as dramas -
ironically including police dramas such as Mortimer's Patch. A quietly spoken man with grey
wavy hair and intense blue eyes, he says he became intrigued by the Watson
case when the scratch marks on the inner lining of a hatch on the deck of
Watson's boat, Blade, were put up as evidence he committed murder. Police
contended the 176 scratch marks were made by Olivia Hope, trapped and
panicking. "It just didn't work for
me," says Hunter. "It's not real behaviour. It's Hollywood B grade
stuff." Hunter says his instinct on the
scratches proved accurate. His book records that some of the scratches went
right to the hatch cover, an area that was invisible and untouchable when the
hatch was closed. Watson's former girlfriend said they were actually made by
his nieces. Hunter already had qualms about
the conviction of Peter Ellis, and he began to get interested in Watson's
case. He began to access information related to the police's case and the
trial. "The moment I started looking
at what the newspapers were saying and what Pope was saying in terms of the
statements police were getting from people, I couldn't believe it." Hunter would produce a film in
2003, Murder on the Blade?, -then his book this year, which he published
himself after Penguin withdrew because of concerns from their lawyers. Hunter has no such concerns about
being sued. He says he has a lot to lose - his house for one thing - which is
why he researched so carefully. Since the book's publication he has not heard
a word from the police, although he says he would welcome a court battle to
better publicise his findings. He printed 6000 books and by the end of April
had sold 3000. Hunter's first issue with the
police investigation is what he sees as Pope's fixation on Watson as a
suspect. He says police interest in other suspects or scenarios quickly
evaporated and all efforts went into proving theories that included Watson. Guy Wallace, who drove Olivia and
Ben's water taxi that night, always said Watson was not the mystery man who
accompanied the pair, but came under huge pressure from police. Wallace and others also insisted
the couple were taken to a distinctive twin-masted ketch almost twice the
size of Watson's yacht. The ketch couldn't be found and the suspicion was it
had left the area - probably the country. By late January 1998, Pope was
making it obvious police had lost interest in the ketch, and Hunter says they
simply stopped recording sightings. Hunter lists a number of occasions
where he says misleading statements were made either publicly or in court
documents. For example, a police affidavit requesting a warrant to bug
Watson's house stated Guy Wallace described the mystery man on Hope and
Smart's water taxi as a person "of similar description to Scott
Watson". This was obviously not the case, says Hunter. One of Hunter's biggest criticisms
is what he calls "a demonising of Watson". He says by the time Watson went to
trial few people cared about him because police had spent five months making
him and his family look so bad. Watson had been a small-time
adolescent criminal. He had 48 convictions including charges related to
cannabis and burglary. Only one offence - when he was charged with
threatening people who were taking his dinghy - had occurred in the eight
years before the Sounds murder trial. Hunter says Pope told journalists off
the record all about Watson's past to vindicate police's interest in him as a
suspect. What journalists did not know was how old the convictions were. "He filled their ears with
stories, not just about Watson, but about his family too." A North and South article shortly
before Watson's arrest wrote of claims from an anonymous source Watson could
be transformed by his "demon" alcohol into a very "nasty"
character. Trial by media was complete, according to Hunter. "The outcome was that an
innocent man was transformed not just into a guilty one, but into something
much worse - a man who didn't matter. Whether he was guilty of the murders or
not was important to the public but it was not the only issue. Scott Watson
was so bad that even if he wasn't guilty it didn't matter if he was convicted
anyway." There is little doubt Watson is
perceived publicly as a dubious character. His reputation has not improved in
recent years. Despite being married to a Rotorua woman in 2004, Watson was in
the news recently after claims he sent obscene images to a teenage girl on a
cellphone from prison. Hunter is hugely critical of the
use in the trial of two secret witnesses from jail who said Watson had
confessed to them. The first witness later admitted he lied, while Hunter
says the second witness was in jail for a violent attack on a woman, but had
his punishment downgraded after giving evidence. The man has been the subject
of more convictions since and Hunter says he has been treated incredibly
leniently. A vital piece of evidence which
contributed to Watson's guilty verdict was the discovery of a hair that could
have been Olivia's, which was found on a blanket from Blade. Hunter points
out no such hairs were found during the first search of the yacht but seven
weeks later, at a time when police had got hairs from Olivia's bedroom to use
as control samples. He is careful not to accuse the police of planting the
hair, but notes at that point in the inquiry, police had no case. Wallace had
three times rejected Watson as the mystery man and Blade as the mystery
yacht. Police experts had found no incriminating evidence on Blade. Finally, Hunter says the
prosecution should never have been allowed by the judge to introduce its
"two-trip theory" during its summing up of evidence on the last day
of the trial. Until then, the Crown case seemed
to have been that Watson was the mystery man in the water taxi with Smart and
Hope, and that was the only trip he made that night from Furneaux Lodge to
his boat Blade. The prosecution suddenly changed tack to suggest Watson made
a trip to his yacht Blade then returned to town. Because it was introduced so late,
Watson's defence never got a chance to cross-examine witnesses such as water
taxi drivers who could have contested the claim. Several nearby boaties heard
Watson come home that night once and alone, but offered no evidence he
returned to the party. Watson was found guilty on
September 11, 1999, and sentenced to at least 17 years in prison. He appealed
to the Court of Appeal, which heard his case seven months after his
conviction. His appeal was thrown out. Waikato-based MP Tanczos says he
doesn't know whether Watson is guilty. But Tanczos says there is public
disquiet about such cases and also concern among MPs, which is why he has
called for a cross-party agreement about the need for a Criminal Appeals
Review Office to act as a watchdog. He says forensic evidence from the
FBI used to convict John Barlow of the killings of Eugene and Gene Thomas has
since been discredited. He also talks of how Rex Haig took a prison officer
hostage in order to try to clear his name. His murder conviction has since
been quashed. Tanczos wants the Government to
set up a review office, a step Britain took 10 years ago. He says petitioning to the
governor-general if you feel you are a victim of a miscarriage of justice is
not a clearcut, transparent process. "Its ad hoc. There needs to
be a separate body outside of the executive." Tanczos says he supports many of
the findings of Justice Thorp, who last year also called for an independent
authority to identify miscarriages of justice. The two-year study which led
to his concluding up to 20 New Zealand inmates may be wrongly jailed focused
on 53 applications to the Justice Ministry claiming miscarriages of justice
from 1995-2002. Thorp called for a "fully
independent and appropriately staffed and resourced authority" with
investigative capability to identify miscarriages and put them forward for
reconsideration by courts. Tanczos says Thorp identified
several causes of such injustices. These included the use of "jailhouse
informants". Secret witnesses also played a
significant part in the conviction of David Tamihere, and were the basis for
unsuccessful attempts to hold an inquiry. Another issue was so-called
"tunnel vision", where police departments around the world tended
to focus on one suspect from an early stage. Justice Minister Mark Burton says
the justice system is being reviewed, and creating an independent authority
is one of the options being looked at. The Government's review should be
completed by the end of the year. Hunter acknowledges that producing
the film and book about the Sounds murders has dominated his life in recent
years. He says he hasn't earned much in the last two years. But he doesn't
regard the book as any more important than any other work he's done. "It's
just another story," he says. So what did happen to Hope and
Smart? He believes the ketch was an
overseas boat in the Sounds on drug business. Once the business was complete
the crew wanted some female company "and I think they succeeded". Although Hunter is adamant Watson
is innocent, he says he isn't crusading for Watson personally. He hasn't met him and isn't taking
on a Joe Karam role. Watson should be released and authorities should
concentrate on fixing the system, he says. Hunter insists he is not
anti-police. He has seen superb police investigations, and produced a
documentary on the investigation by Detective Inspector John Manning which
led to the arrest of South Auckland rapist Joseph Thompson. Hunter's wish is not just for an
independent organisation to look into possible miscarriages of justice, but
also for more widespread change to the justice system. Banning secret
witnesses is a must, he says. He advocates for more of a
truth-seeking role for the court by changing the pre-trial process, making
both prosecution and defence pass over all information so it becomes courts
evidence. This would allow both teams full access and remove some game
playing and ability of combatants to hide or distort evidence. Hunter is also unhappy with many
misleading statements which he says were made by prosecuting lawyers in the
Watson case. Why, he asks, are lawyers not subject to the same rules as
anyone else called to give evidence - why do they not swear an oath? There's not a lot of reassurance
to be had from Hunter's view of New Zealand's justice system. Which begs the
question: what do you do if you're caught in a situation like Watson and
suddenly find yourself the main subject of police inquiries? Hunter looks up immediately with a
serious face and gives an instant answer. "Panic." |
