Radio NZ
May 25 2008; 23:30

Call for Commission of Inquiry

A high profile lawyer Barry Hart is calling for a Commission of Inquiry into police investigations following acquittals in two murder trials last week.

George Gwaze was found not guilty of the sexual violation and murder of his niece on Wednesday, a day before Chris Kahui was cleared of killing his baby sons.

Questions have been raised by Mr Kahui's defence team about what it says was the police's late disclosure of vital information.

The Crown Prosecution has referred the Gwaze case to the Solicitor General.

Barry Hart agrees with both verdicts but says a huge amount of Crown money was spent on both cases, and there were problems with the police investigations. He says it's important someone is held accountable

He says in such situations, it's important an independent body takes a look at whether anything's gone wrong.

The police were unavailable for comment.