Stuff
May 26 2008
Call for inquiry after high-profile acquittals
NZPA
Defence
lawyer Barry Hart says a Commission of Inquiry was needed into the police
investigations of both the Chris Kahui case and that
of George Gwaze.
On Thursday,
a High Court jury in Auckland found Chris Kahui not
guilty of murdering his baby twins Cru and Chris two years ago.
Mr Gwaze was
found not guilty in the High Court in Christchurch on Wednesday last week of
the sexual violation and murder of his niece.
The Crown
Prosecution Service has referred the Gwaze case to the Solicitor-General.
Mr Hart said
he agreed with both verdicts but that large sums of money were spent by the
Crown in both cases and that there were problems with the police
investigations.
He said it
was important that an independent body looked at whether the investigations
was carried out properly.
Mr Hart said
in the Kahui case there was a long delay before
charging, which said to him that police weren't sure at an early stage.
"It
doesn't matter about public pressure and someone has to be arrested. There's
huge public pressure but they shouldn't bow down to that," he told Radio
New Zealand.
"If there's
not enough evidence you just don't charge people. If you do then you've got to
take the consequences and it needs to be looked at after the event so it
doesn't happen again."
Mr Hart said
if charges were to be laid they should have been against more than just Chris Kahui, whose lawyers argued the twins' mother Macsyna King could have been the killer.
He also
suggested having private law firms appointed by the Solicitor-General as
prosecutors was perhaps not the best method.
"Maybe
it gets a bit blurred between their respective functions (the Crown and
police)," he said.
"In
England the director of public prosecutions is completely separate body that
deals with prosecutions, not a private law firm."
Police
Association vice-president Stuart Mills disagreed
there were structural issues about the way prosecutions were brought and said
there was no need for an inquiry.
"The
public has to remember that in our current judicial system, acquittals do
occur. In the case of Mr Kahui no applications to
dismiss the charges were ever made," he told Radio New Zealand.
"The
police are doing a very good job in trying circumstances. We need to make sure
witnesses are co-operative with police as opposed to hiding at times family
members who have committed a crime."
He said
police had not decided to charge people for the sake of it and that medical
evidence from highly regarded experts was important.
"Mr
Hart says there was a long delay in the Kahui case.
There was so they could actually assess all the information, but also the fact
that the family were uncooperative throughout the
investigation."
Mr Mills
said crown solicitors being present at crime scenes right at the beginning was
useful so they could observe the scene and relate that back when they went to
trial.
He said it
was unfair to blame police in the Gwaze case for not asking about the victim's
Aids ailment.
"Police
were using the experts available at the time and on that information they
charged (Mr Gwaze).
"The investigation was conducted to a high standard. There was some additional medical evidence that came out at a very late stage."