Keith and Margaret Berryman are

looking for a royal commission into their case that followed them being prosecuted for a the collapse of a bridge leading their King Country property, built by the NZ Army, killing beekeeper Ken Richards in 1994.

The legal costs of the battle saw them lose their farm and in November 2009 they accepted a 'take it or leave it' offer of $150,000 which a spokesman for Attorney General Chris Finlayson was an 'act of compassion.'

I seem to remember that an ex NZ Police Association president acted as the Berryman's lawyer and was able to expose through engineers reports that the bridge had never been built to required standards. It was a protracted battle of 15 years. Keith Berryman has some choice discriptions of the way he and his wife were treated pointing out that he and his wife 'were blamed for a crime we (they) never committed.'

It would be difficult to imagine that the settlement figure was not full and final as in the normal course of such events, however things like this have a way of resurfacing and at least on the surface the 'take it or leave it' offer would appear to exempt of compassion by those very words if true as reported. Other factors emerge, being the cost of a farm as only $150,000 - potential mortgages aside when over a 16 year period a farm would probably naturally increase by that value or more. Of course then is the personal aspect of what Keith describes of being blamed for a crime they never committed. What a bloody nightmare, then all the covering up before blame was finally accepted in a petulant 'take it or leave it' fashion.

Things go even deeper I suspect. Was the offer fair? Did the offer look only at the situation the Berryman's were in and what amount they might accept while in a situation compounded by 16 years of stress and worry, I think so. Was the offer itemised so that the Berrymans could note how much was allowed for being subject to coverups, faulty investigations and reporting, the suffering they'd endured, what they lost etc etc and moreover why an offer made in 'compassion' had qualifiers with it that still rankle the family 2 years later.

Ah, I remember. Rob Moodie, the kaftan wearing ex police officer and lawyer represented the Berryman's in at least part of their ordeal. No other country in the world might know more so than NZ that mistreatments of miscarriages of justice and so forth bear only poisoned fruit. It must be seen we have a poor record of settling grievances and a institutionalised mindset of grinding out to the bitter end rather than quickly looking to remedy Government and Government department failures. What could take only days or weeks to destroy might take a life time or more to remedy - how did such a beast grow inside our system of democracy?