Gerald Hope 'unconvinced' by Scott Watson.

A North and South magazine article by Mike White in which he reports the meeting between Gerald Hope and the man imprisoned for killing his daughter Olivia and her friend Ben Smart, Scott Watson, is now released.

I hope to put some perspective on both the article and comments today by Gerald Hope that he was unconvinced by an 'elusive' Watson that he not convinced is innocent. First of all it is interesting to examine the possible motives of both men agreeing to the interview and what they may really have expected as an outcome. The interview was hazardous for Watson and his chances of parole, if he somehow convinced Hope that he was indeed innocent Hope had said he would back him in his claims of innocence. It's difficult on the basis of such ingredients that the outcome was going to be positive. One man is undoubtedly a grieving father, the other may or may not be innocent of the charges which have kept him prison for 2 decades. Realistically, with or without Hope's backing Watson has the Justice system sitting unfairly on his back whether he is backed by Gerald or not.

On the other hand whether Gerald decided he believed Watson or not, he was no further ahead - the mystery surrounding his daughter's disappearance is not solved, and hasn't been solved by Watson's imprisonment. I'm sure Gerald Hope understood that before he overturned the stone and spoke to Watson. As much as he may have wanted to be dispassionate, critical, the task appeared too great for any man who lost a daughter in such a terrible way. Having read the article and the Stuff news reports of Gerald's feelings about his chance to speak with Watson one thing is plain, he still doesn't know what happened to his daughter or indeed if Watson is guilty or innocent. But plenty was revealed anyway.

Those that read the article will understand perhaps for the first time, as it was for me, that Scott Watson is an intelligent man, that he is also justifiably bitter about his imprisonment and the circumstances which led to his convictions for murder. What followers of the case will have learnt is that Hope confirmed to Watson the assembly of the case against himself, the media manipulation by which police ensured they got their man, not necessarily the right man, but certainly the man they targeted in a very public way. Gerald Hope confirmed some of the manipulation by police including that of his older daughter Amelia, who over a period of time changed her witness statement to include the possibility that Watson was aboard a water taxi at the same time she was. This was proof of witness manipulation that Hope readily revealed - hinted at his own manipulation by police. Amelia Hope now joins a number of other witnesses in a catagory of those that were convinced that their evidence wasn't entirely accurate and accepted helpful suggestions that would get the bad bugger Watson inside. Most interestingly from Hope's admissions to this was his use of the concept of the ends justifying the means, he spoke of the trial being the most expensive of any to that time, his misgivings about the quality of the police work and his real disappointment that a mystery ketch was never ruled out or indeed ruled in which may have resulted at least in part of the mystery being solved. Gerald in his honesty told the public what many suspect about the Watson case, that essentially only 1 man was targeted and that therefore consequently it may never be known if the police in fact ever arrested the right man.

To a direct question from Watson, Hope revealed that it was police who raised with him a lot of information to convince him not of Watson's guilt,  but his likelihood of being guilty for reasons nothing to do with the murders of the missing couple. One of those, though how it could possibly be significant to deciding evidence or lack of evidence against Watson, was the unsubstantiated claim that Watson and his sister slept together. Watson, with some energy, wanted to know who had told Hope that story but Hope would not say although he generally agreed that it was all part of the landscape prevailing where evidence of guilt was sparse. In the subtext Hope was perhaps inadvertently revealing his deepest thoughts and misgivings - his doubt about Watson's guilt. That doubt of course folks is the reasonable doubt a Jury must consider, and one thing the interview revealed that since the trial there are more reasons to add to that doubt on critical evidence the Jury never got to here. At this juncture 2 points cross, Hope was inadvertently perhaps acknowledging the weaknesses in the case, and to my mind why it still remains a travesty that Watson's petition for Exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy was turned down, a result which since has never been appealed by Watson through Judicial Review.

Some questions from Hope to Watson perhaps showed the strain that Hope has endured all the years since losing his youngest child.

GH "Did you as some suggested, put all your clothes into a plastic bag and swim ashore?
SW "Seriously?"
GH "I'm not serious but I am asking you."
SW "No."

To be fair nobody would have expected a sudden confession of this type from Watson, again underlying the elements of futility expected from this meeting. One cannot help but think that Gerald knew that Watson certainly was not, about admitting, something he has denied for 2 decades. Watson, at least in part, knew he had the chance to get some information he needed, or at least have it confirmed that Hope, in his position, as a leading figure in the search for his daughter and Ben, was also a leading figure in spreading some of the myths arisen in this case. Though Hope did admit frankly anyway, that the missing ketch, the recanted witness testimony, the discovery of the 2 critical hairs from Olivia's genetic line in the forensic lab where a blanket from Watson's boat was being examined, was only part of his disquiet about whether or not police had got the right man. Disquiet which at the very least remains. It's clear by his own statements that Gerald Hope does not know if Watson is guilty or not and that it was unlikely that the meeting would have ever resulted in that.

In the paper Hope says that Watson's responses to some of his questions were rehearsed and absolutely silent on the more circumstantial elements of the prosecution case such as the disposal of the bodies in a sleeping bag. He said he was mute, unemotional, disconnected without considering that Watson was hardly likely to animated in rejecting assertions that he had rejected for 2 decades. It seems Gerald could not accept that the muteness and lack of emotion may have been from offence at being asked such questions when he was being truthful, or that Watson was simply bewildered by them or the lack of Gerald being able to appreciate he didn't know. It also appears that Gerald could not discern that events going over perhaps millions of times in the mind of Watson in the last 20 years would be in a monotone, almost a resigned defeat, that the truth of his innocence is obvious. Gerald I think fell into what would be a ready mistake, that Watson would know the answers to things he couldn't possibly know if he was innocent, and that not having those answers certainly did not mean guilt.

All of this it now appears turns on 'art work' taken from Watson's cell while on remand which Hope somehow getting a copy from police - no doubt to convince of Watson's guilt. Hope is quoted as saying that looking at the drawings he sees (in Watson) a disturbed person, even undertones of death and retribution. I think that more than anything else those comments reveal the position he has held for 20 years, that he doesn't know if Watson is guilty but that his interpretation of the drawings (which certainly are bleak and dark - like other art drawn before and since by 1000s of others) have convinced Gerald that Watson is disturbed and evil. Exactly what police could have anticipated when giving a copy to Gerald.

It's a little surprising on that point that Gerald who acknowledged the manipulation by police (and himself) of the media and the pubic at the time of the arrest and trials, holds such aloft as reasons for being convinced not by hard evidence, not by the finding of the mystery yacht or a credible explanation that it never existed, by the disclosure that the hairs found in the lab that were or were not those of his daughter, that identifications were no longer in question, that evidence had not been recanted, that it was accepted that evidence had been changed by witnesses in response to pressure or convincing by police and so on - had it's answer in a drawing stolen taken from a prison cell.

Gerald Hope plainly didn't get what he imagined he might, but which he no doubt realised would not be forthcoming anyway. Those with doubts about this case got no further ahead though they now have the admission from someone very close and involved that there was indeed witness and evidence manipulation by the police in this case - the signature of all recent NZ Miscarriages of Justice.

Thanks to Gerald Hope for that concession of the truth from the other side.