Watson case cracks open even more.

                                         More than one swallow for Scott Watson at last.

The last post about Scott was a recognition that he is finally tasting success in his fight for freedom. It would be rare however that 2 single events have happened on just one day as they did on October 14. 

Firstly the man that verballed Scott claiming he said at the time of his arrest the words "it's about time," was mentioned in the news as New Zealand's "Top Detective" retired prematurely. Looking at the facts surrounding the man one is entitled to say, as rarely happens in the police, he was pushed out as it appears was the officer in charge of the case, Pope, many years earlier. Fitzgerald claims that he will be doing further contract work for the police. The direct cause of his retirement is more likely his sudden fall from grace after the Court of Appeal rejected his system of lying to suspects in order for them to confess or reveal details when they were not cautioned that anything they might say could be used against them. The particular case was where an innocent man "confessed." I don't think he should or will get work from the police, if he does there is likely to be a public furore.

In the manner expected of such a man, Fitzgerald blamed his own staff for not applying the methods properly thus exposing his true nature of doing anything to anybody to save his own neck. My interest in the man goes back prior to 2016 when research showed that during Watson's first Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPOM) application and at a time the case was being investigated by then QC Kirsty McDonald now of course a KC, he was permitted not only entry to Paremoremo Prison but allowed to see a secret witness who had recanted his claim that Scott had confessed. The normal protocol when an investigation was undertaken about police conduct was that police would be unable to approach the witness, but that did stop dear old Tom and as it turns out it didn't bother Kirsty either. Probably no surprise that the witness recanted his recantation allowing Kirsty to reject Scott's plea.

Things did not stop there however although they were delayed for some years until a 2nd RPOM was filed on Scott's behalf where among other issues it was pointed out that if a person says "yes, no, yes" they are unreliable, particularly having given evidence of a confession that sent a man away for life. It also reflected not on the conduct of Fitzgerald but also on the judgment of the then McDonald QC. Complicating the issue for the pair was that the RPOM pointed out that a second witness who claimed to hear a confession had a different story than the first. The 2nd man had claimed to the Jury that he was non-violent and objected to violence against women as the reason for his evidence. Later it was revealed in fact to be a violent man which was known to Fitzgerald, particularly against women who on the day he told Fitzgerald about the "confession" had just taken part in a violent assault against another inmate - something Fitzgerald didn't bother to charge him for. Those revelations in part may have driven Scott's first-ever legal success in the case since he was arrested along with issues regarding the "gold plated" hair evidence against him that has now caused his case to return to the Courts.

While the public may not know all these details police certainly will and indeed will politicians. Keeping a lid on all of that plus what is now arguably an illegal interrogation method, the public concern about Scott's case could see a feeling that any future role with police for Fitzgerald has become untenable. Furthermore, he failed to take responsibility for his own system and blamed his staff. Ms. McDonald, who was undisturbed that the mentally unwell witness who recanted after being visited by Fitzgerald also ignored that a person doesn't give variations of a "true" confession, is having some trouble of her own prosecuting the White Island case where a 2nd defendant has already been discharged despite her objections.

The second "swallow" which indicates that summer may, at last,  be arriving on the Watson Miscarriage of Justice has been the release of material around which reports to the Parole Board have relied and it is expecting some clarity will emerge giving Scott the chance of parole before his appeal is heard and indeed the chance to help with it. Few of us if any can ever grasp what Scott Watson has gone through so progressing now without the fog sees him having a good chance to make it home at last.

                               Suddenly Scott Watson has one success after another.

After 24 years of false imprisonment, Scott Watson is stringing one success together after another. Although progress has been too slow rectifying injustices in New Zealand has always been pointedly slow. That is an absolutely shameful situation and senior police as recently as 2017 were still saying that Scott was guilty. Now they are silent perhaps considering that their "gut instinct" on which they built their false case has finally been destroyed or revealed for what it is - criminal behaviour.

They deserve to go to prison.

But for now, looking back at the tide change it was something around 100 pages of submissions and many links to supporting material found by a lay person, helped by many people that was the first strike using an ancient process to correct legal processes - The Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPOM). It took 3 years or so and unfairly for Scott not all the material on hand was considered or he might have been out of prison by now. However, his plea for the first time in 20 years was accepted, having failed in the NZ Courts and even in the British Privy Council.

By then other work had continued to the point Scott now has a growing list of new witnesses who police deliberately ignored, changed or destroyed their statements which in total would have exonerated Scott or indeed with an honest investigation seen Scott never charged with perhaps the real truth of the case discovered. A detective who appears to have done a lot of the dirty work, Tom Fitzgerald, was recently blasted in a Court of Appeal (COA) decision for the deceitful manner in which he misused the Law in other cases. At this stage, the police hierarchy is sticking with him but we will see how long that lasts.

What the COA has yet to consider is that Fitzgerald not only managed to get false confessions or at least illegal ones, but he also bullied witnesses into lying either by threats or promises. The Watson case is littered not only with sightings of the mystery ketch hidden by police but also by witnesses who changed their stories which were kept secret from the Court.

Where once the hair "evidence" was said to be impeachable it is now just a mess of confusion and more likely deliberate falsification. Whilst the fight to have the whole case properly examined and understood after Scott is freed with people brought to account will continue, recently another glaring picture of deceit has been confirmed. Scott has been denied parole after flawed departmental reports were given to the Parole Board. He has been in prison for years when he should have been paroled and fighting his case with his freedom already intact. That too must be remedied. NZ's system of Parole is a flawed mess, Corrections has the largest financial allowance of any government agency and it has built a network of preposterous mumbo jumbo which brings us to another recent victory for Scott. He has been for years wrongly assessed as a high risk. That resulted from the use of wrong data then copied by one miscreant after another, possibly deliberately in some cases, that too must be remedied and will be.

Scott may soon have another Parole hearing with the truth on the table as to who he really is as a person, while relatively early next year his case will be back in Court and he will win. I hope by then the Crown has backed off from the hidden and changed evidence, the witnesses who lied either under immense pressure from police or for reward.

Overall it is shameful how long it takes to free innocent people and that will require work in the future. I hope part of that will be a routine investigation into the police or forensic scientists involved in a particular case, it is they after all who are the most responsible for false imprisonment.