Belated vindication for Vivien Harrison?

Vivien Harrison died April just gone, never having been 'deframed' from the travesty of injustice imposed on her. She was 'identified' by the Prosecutor (later Judge) David Morris as the mystery woman who fed the baby Rochelle Crewe after her parents Jeanette and Harvey had been murdered. David Morris had driven the spectre of this lie into the reputation of, as she was then Vivien Thomas, to ensure that her then husband Arthur would be convicted of the murders. David Morris did this despite information on the case file that another person, later to be the wife of Len Demler father of Jeanette, Norma had been identified as the woman seen on the property in the days before the discovery of the bodies.

Much of this information is contained in a North and South article by Chris Bird and as much as it vindicates the late Vivien and Arthur Thomas it incriminates the complicity of Police in wilfully exercising a Miscarriage of Justice. However, more than that it shows that the strongest circumstantial evidence available to the police to have enabled a conviction was that against Len Demler. He, like his 2nd wife Norma, fudged and prevaricated that Norma was 'on the scene' that is in Pukekawa around the time of the murders. The police had a positive identification from Bruce Roddick who despite immense pressure was unwavering in his evidence that the woman he was on the Crewe's farm in the days after the murder was not Vivien but indeed was Norma Demler, the later information was never put before a jury as was also excluded the note in Detective Len Johnson's work-diary '..that Roddick was going to identify the woman he saw as Mrs Demler,'concluded with the further entry 'confirms our suspicions re identification.'

Of course if the allegation of Morris was negated, and the proof positive revealed that Mr Roddick had identified Norma Demler the case against Arthur was shot, as were the obscene allegations against Vivien. Moreover, a complete case was built against the true perpetrator of the crime Len Demler. I say the true perpetrator because there was no reason for Len Demler to lie about when he met Norma Demler or when she was 'on the scene' cooking for the shearers. All of this is substantiated by various people including even members of the extended Demler family. What becomes revealed is that among the police was evidence and belief that Norma had fed the baby and that therefore her husband to be was implicated in the murders.

Birt's article shows the role Norma Demler soon began to assume in the affairs of the trust which own the various farming properties associated to Len and his family even though Colin Harvey, a trustee said of her involvement 'She had no right to be there (at the meetings of the trust) as she was not a trustee and she did all the talking.'

Even the unshakable recollections of Bruce Roddick as to the identity of the mystery woman would sought to undermined by another Detective Mike Charles who considered that it was important to determine what the sexual inclinations of the late Bruce Roddick were, as though anyone could imagine the relevance of that an issue as the reliability of Bruce's identification of Norma and 'failure' to identify the favourite of Prosecutor Morris - Vivien.

The Crewe case remains a rare, if yet still raw, blight on the landscape of Justice in New Zealand, and rarer still for the now public knowledge that while one man was prosecuted members of the Police believed it was another man 'courted' and cultivated into a role of innocence that some within the Police believed was guilty and who was never thoroughly investigated and became unwatched under the blind eye of Justice that seeks a result no matter the cost and the issues of right or wrong or of basic fairness and Justice.

Chris Birt's article is a must read for those interested in or affected by this case, and reveals other startling information that the the Commissioner of the time, Walton, instructed Auckland Police (at a point after the convictions) to not formally interview Norma Demler. At work from the very top down was activity to lay open shortcomings in the original investigation, Walton told Chris Birt that if he should see the officer involved again to 'ask him what the reason was.' Another startling demonstration of self-protection by a request to ask the officer receiving the order what the reason was for Walton to have made the order.