Scott Watson v The Crown

                                         The End Game: Scott Watson v The Crown

No Miscarriage of Justice is static, particularly where it holds public interest and inquiry. That is most certainly the situation with the Watson case. For anyone with a passing interest in cases like Scott's, there is likely to be some aspect of interest they feel to be very telling either pointing toward the person's guilt or innocence.

For many years that has likely been the alleged sightings of the suspect ketch in this particular case. That is something there has always been debate around - early on in particular between investigators and the public. To some degree, that debate has been relatively malign with the word "mistaken" often used by police and prosecutors in the early days at least. They essentially said of the people who had possibly sighted the suspect ketch that they were good people who were mistaken. Of course few of those "good people" agreed with that view, in fact, some were downright angry - with good cause. As the majority of them were boaties, some lifelong and experienced.

Additionally few people were satisfied with the "hair evidence" said to be that which held the case together. Then there was other weak evidence, scratches on boat hatch cover right to its edges which could not have been made had the hatched been closed on the couple. The boat was fully wiped down for fingerprints when even the officer who gave evidence as to that said it was not the case. An allegation that the "clean up" had happened after New Year, which according to many new witnesses, had happened the previous month after sailing through a storm in Cook Strait. It is claimed that Scott had offered to kill women for a woman friend who never mentioned that to the police or why she had remained friends with Scott after such an offer would be made, let alone still socialise with him and have him on board on New Year's Eve. Later it was evident that the woman held a business position that could have been compromised by the fact she was a recreational dope smoker. There's little doubt that police pointed that out to her or that she didn't know that herself.

We had the Eerie Bay "caretaker" who in his first statements could not recall when Scott had arrived on New Years morning aboard his boat the Blade, finally recalling the exact time at a point after he'd been busted with a commercial marijuana crop for which he was never sent to prison. The owner of the land who made several accusations against Scott never had his land confiscated and was never prosecuted for the cannabis plantation found "as part" of the homicide inquiry. The caretaker's children who had been very confident of the time Scott arrived lost their memories as their father had previously done until his memory was somehow restored.

So what has changed in 17 years despite most of what is above being already generally known? A number of things: the suspect ketch has been traced and confirmed by reliable witnesses some of who are able to confirm that their statements had been changed by police and without their knowledge until very recently. That tracing is very defined to relative important times to avoid in particular police diluting it as has happened previously. The ketch that wasn't there is suddenly there again and it is clear the police made every effort to hide it as the lost or altered statements show. Evidence is abundant that Scott was not the mystery man and that the info for that was always on the file but never put in the Defence's hands along with the reason why Scott was not the mystery man. 

So there is evidence showing that there was deliberate malfeasance in hiding and misreporting ketch sightings along with written evidence indicating that from 1998. It has emerged that there was deliberate malfeasance in that the understanding of microscopic hair evidence has changed dramatically to the point where the ESR Scientist who said at the trial "contamination" had to be considered would now need to say that there definitely was "hair contamination" and that she at the time was not the expert she set herself out to be.

In all for followers of this case, it is somewhat difficult to comprehend the much smaller picture that points to Scott's innocence. There is little doubt that the number of witnesses called, how long a trial can take is used by the Crown to impress the Jury with the thoroughness of the investigation. In the Watson case, it was misused to hide the truth, that Scott Watson was framed for crimes he didn't commit, and that both senior police and Crown officials also knew that because of a deliberate "clean up" of the file that was unsatisfactorily done until finally being fully discovered.

There is no escape for senior police and Crown officials in this case - they deliberately framed an innocent man and their records show it because they were arrogant and careless in covering it up. The one thing Scott Watson can be grateful to them for.

 

Scott Watson case now floats on a tide of innocence.

 For a long time, the Watson case has been a series of loose ends indicating innocence. That has been taken advantage of by the prosecuting police and the Crown, The more the issues favouring Scott have been isolated the longer he was able to be presented as guilty. There is a simple reason for that which can be presented as a person holding funds in different ways, say a car, a house, money in the bank and shares but despite that - in each of those respects the person was seen as poor because those things were not added together for a single total.

Translating that analogy to Scott's case shows there are many deposits in his favour, public opinion and concern or doubt, Scott never having been seen with Ben or Olivia, no sign of the couple being on his boat the Blade, a suspect ketch, more than 1 mystery man seen in Furneaux lodge that night and traced, the impossibility of time for the trip from Endeavour Inlet, to Cook Strait then back to Eerie Bay, positive sightings of the couple alive after it was claimed they were dead - particularly sightings of the suspect ketch on the way to and at Mapua with the couple still alive after New Year's day, the confusion of the suspect ketch with the Seswalker at Mapua, the ridiculous evidence of the prison stoolies, the revelations that police had hidden evidence by deleting it from statements, "lost" photos of the suspect ketch, the positioning and sighting of the suspect ketch entering, anchoring and leaving Endeavour Inlet, the utter destruction of the forensic evidence, the failure of the extensive forensic searches of Scott's boat the Blade to show either Ben or Olivia had been aboard, the failure of the Crown to have witnesses showing that they were aboard or witnesses sayiing they heard them going aboard despite that the Blade was rafted up to 2 other boats with many people aboard including some whom spoke with Scott who wanted to continue to party, the evidence of the suspect ketch leaving early on New Years Day around the time a scream was heard, Scott's departure noted by Reg McManaway as later around 7.30 with a verbal communication between the 2.

These are only a dozen or so of the things deposited to Scott's innocence - when read together, as they always should have been, and as the Law requires, they are a complete narrative of innocence. For supporters of Scott or those interested in the case never let the pearls of Scott's innocence be seen alone, join them together and fully understand his innocence. 

Joe Parker, turn on those ears.

 Joseph Parker - where's the on switch?

As a long-time fan of Joe Parker, yesterday's fight against Derek Chisora answered a question many followers of his may have for the last few years - how he switches off.

Firstly, commentators speculated that Joe was under instructions to whether the storm and rely on Derek tailing off in the middle rounds. If that was the instructions the fight showed it was a mistake. Joe needed to take a leaf from the Evander Holyfield v Tyson fight when to everyone's surprise Evander got right in front of Mike and bullied him. Joe showed he can punch whilst going back. Had he also gone to the left and right he could have started punishing Derek from the outset and not have a nail-biting finish.

When Joe got to his feet quickly after the early knockdown then was the time to start getting combinations going, the ones we saw late in the fight - where his punches were fast clean, and solid. He looked good. As it was he provided Derek with confidence that he could win. Joe needed to take that confidence away straight after. Let Derek know he was in fight, was going to get punished or knocked out from the get-go.

Even the Ali rope a dope employed against Forman would have been alternative tactics - especially after the knockdown which should have resulted in a change to the plan if it was indeed what many thought it was. The thing about bullying Chisora, or punishing in bursts throughout is that Joe showed in the late rounds he was capable of it. He also showed superior fitness to what we have seen for some time and the hand speed was back in spade fulls.

I think about round 10 everyone must have heard Joe's corner urging him to let fly, but he didn't. He wasn't listening or was switched off in some way. He's got to get that out of his boxing, he's got to concentrate on every second in the ring and get mean at the start just as Derek did to his great credit.

Joe knows where he is on the mountain and if it were a real mountain he could fall in a second if he is not alert to everything around him. Joe has come across as a great sportsman, witty and engaging - now is the time to come across as a great fighter, mean and fully concentrating - not only to what is before him in the ring but also to his trainers. Have only 1 thing in his head - winning and not talking about it. I think he puts himself to sleep with his laid-back style - plenty of time for that in retirement, but right now he needs to own every ring he steps into.

Great to see the flashes, bad to see the lapses, real bad.

Breaking the silence in 2021

                                               Breaking the silence in 2021.

No posts from me since August and as I try to pinpoint why the major reason seems to be have been working on a case of Mark Lundy which I think is a wrongful conviction. Right now it seems to be among the few cases I've worked on, as the one which has absorbed the most time and still counting. It's full of holes. They're everywhere.

At some point well over a year back I decided to drop the controversial science used and look at the case from the beginning, starting with motive, opportunity, crime scene evidence, autopsies, and the general inquiry before matching it to the novel "science." Everything looked into was not what it appeared to be, the flaws were immense particularly the motive that the Crown based its case on, and from there, things do not get any better. The main discovery I was looking for was what I would call the instrument or working of the miscarriage of Justice because they always have a framework of sorts that connects together into a broken conviction.

The disappointment has been that the Courts have learned little from earlier miscarriages of Justice, such as Bain, Thomas, and Pora. While the cases may not be the same the mechanisms of how the MOJ has worked are, even when applied differently. These are things the public expects to have been fixed, especially when after 20 years or so a falsely convicted person is freedom gained there are often comments about how the same could not be happening in current times, but they are.

Notable this week has the English case of Jeremy Bamber being returned to the CCRC on a number of grounds including that critical evidence was withheld. That case I was once told by Robin Bain supporters was like the Bain case. Indeed it is but not for the reasons the Robin Bain supporters believe but rather the forensics around a suicide that was ignored. Just as now, while Scott Watson waits for his appeal, the similarities in the forensic science failures in his case match the Lundy case. They are in fact worse because the autopsies in the Lundy case were completely flawed as well forensic evidence. Where an exaggerated past was held against Scott, in Lundy it was the fat bastard who cheated on his wife used to cause public anger.

But justice is not built on anger, it is also not built on misused science or hidden evidence - all things that are part of the patterns I wrote about. After the Thomas case, certain disastrous things were never going to happen again. But they have again and again. That is what needs to be resisted. I hope the CCRC will play a role in that, it will at least in Lundy - but the British system has shown in the Bamber case that the CCRC there has been wilfully blind on at least some occasions.

So at least 3 cases in NZ of probable convictions edge forward to remedy, while Jeremy Bamber half a world a way and imprisoned for 3 decades get the chance for the truth to be looked at for the first time.