https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/crime/rex-haig-case-concerns-over-how-immunity-was-granted-to-crewmates/
It has taken me a couple of days to absorb the news in the link above, which is a report from investigative journalist Mike White. In the modern era the New Zealand public generally realise that police in New Zealand do sometimes frame the innocent, albeit police may well think the accused person is guilty because of 'gut instinct' and all the other factors that may contribute. I am aware of one case where police gave immunity to 2 men to provide evidence against a 3rd, who police argued was the principal offender. The result was the jury finding the man guilty as a party, indicating the jury's belief that one of the 2 provided with immunity was the main offender who never went to prison whilst the lesser offender was sentenced to life imprisonment. To put that in context compared to what happened to the late Rex Haig it has to be absorbed that according to the paperwork obtained by Mike White through the Official Information Act police knew that one of the persons they gave immunity to in the Haig case had 'confessed' to the murder police attributed to Haig.
That alleged confession wasn't to a single person, but rather to up to a dozen different people - ordinarily, in most cases more than enough to prove guilt. That's what has taken me time to absorb, it is almost too evil to comprehend it could happen in NZ. Of course, if it has happened once, it more than likely has happened before. As the article shows one man who heard the confession was killed, Hogan, the immunity witness and probable killer according to those he had confessed to, was never even interviewed about the death of Anton Sherlock a witness to the confession of Hogan and a man who had said he has been threatened by Hogan if he revealed Hogan's confession. 9 days before Sherlock was due to provide evidence, he was found murdered - a killing which police also attributed to Rex Haig. Just going over that again - police believed that Haig killed a man who had exculpatory evidence for Rex Haig. Later another man, Nigel Johnson, would be convicted of the murder of Sherlock, despite protesting his innocence.
Sometime later when an internal police inquiry looked to deal with the death of Anton Sherlock, the investigator Detective Inspector Winter would dismiss Hogan's involvement using the following extraordinary reasoning:
“If killing Sherlock to stop him providing evidence was the motive, then there was David Barr and at least 12 other people who were potential victims who lined up to give affidavit evidence prejudicial to Hogan,” Winter wrote. “As Barr and some of these others are now deceased, perhaps it is suggested that Hogan has had a hand in those deaths also?”
It seems DI Winter did not consider that Hogan, who according to others had already killed 1 man, and threatened to kill a 2nd if that person (Sherlock) revealed Hogan's confession, did not appreciate that the at least 12 people who claimed to have also heard the Hogan confession might well have felt it was too dangerous to cross Hogan.
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