Wrongful Convictions Deprioritised in New Zealand?

                                Wrongful Convictions Deprioritised in New Zealand?

Well, I'm never going to be a Judge so I will never know if there is an effort to control the dialogue in the NZ cases of wrongful convictions or some other reasons why Judges sit back when incorrect scientific facts for example are given to a Court. Or indeed when evidence that even a young child might believe as not being credible is used to uphold a conviction in a case where there may have been a wrongful conviction. It all matters - and so if not to the Court then who?

Recently I listened to a radio interview with Paul Henry in what the Herald calls a podcast. It was recorded last month and while Paul was relatively well informed there were instances where he gave details more in-depth than previously. Part of that was around the infamous 2-trip theory. Paul presented it as a spontaneous event pulled by Prosecutor Davison at the last minute. When in fact there is a tonne of evidence police were trying to prove a second trip from the outset. Why? Because there was no evidence of Scott ever being with the couple and certainly as Paul said in the Wallace Naiad with them.

I think there is a critical interest in that for those following the case who must wonder why the Court isn't. The public doesn't expect the Court to be enveloped in a vacuum, not reading about these cases or informing themselves about details before Appeals. Yet to this point, although there was always evidence police had been totally unable to prove the point of a second trip before Davison spoke to the Jury about it. I think Davison knew, as did his off-sider who reappraised all evidence before the trial in what was called the Crutchley report. That report had been done with neutrality and according to rules that apply to the Crown and its prosecutors as duties to the Court, would have meant that Davison was obliged to tell the Court well in advance that there was no proof of a second trip despite police trying to prove that since the month of the alleged murders of Ben and Olivia.

Yet even if we get past that which is a complete indulgence of the Crown's malfeasance in hiding it, there does not seem to be one NZ Court in this case that asked Davison how extensive the search had been to prove a second trip. I know how extensive it was and how people were threatened about it because it is on the file and is now followed by confirmatory information provided by people who were asked to essentially perjure themselves and provide circumstantial evidence that "proved" a second trip.

I think I have said enough about this now apart from this evidence is documented and in the hands of Scott's Lawyers but may never be heard because of limitations put on Scott's appeal. It's bloody madness. As was Paul Henry offering excuses for Pope. If Pope couldn't handle the pressure of this investigation in an honest way he should have opted out instead of leaving 25 more years of misery for Scott and his family.

 

Joe Parker v David Tua?

 

                                                 Joe Parker and David Tua

I think Joe may have lost his way, especially after watching the Joe Joyce fight. Joyce suddenly just looked way too big for Joe and a far bigger hitter despite that Joe's been with big men before who can hit. Increasingly Joe's been talking up his training and speaking about things he has learned when in fact Joe is a senior fighter now and has in the past shown credible efforts consistently. Joe has always been the nice guy fighter, but being a nice guy is wearing thin. The public wants to see a ruthless heavyweight with bad intentions from the time that bell rings and right up to that point. There has been talking about him being at the crossroads for years, it may be time to give up the game if he can't sort out whatever it is that is distracting him from getting the ring and fighting like his life depends on it. His last fight against the cruiserweight Jack Massey had some desperation about it as Jack fought a spoiling fight looking to avoid being knocked but Joe should have the power to go through that sort of defence.

Speaking of power, David Tua is in the shape of his life and not talking to the press - a good sign that perhaps he's negotiating, or going to try to negotiate another fight. It could be the one the public always wanted to see - against Mike Tyson. Those 2 are the "real deals" in shorter heavyweights with natural power and as I've seen others admit it's what they're craving for - perhaps that's on the cards if not straight away then after a couple of tune-up fights. For David to get in the shape he is, it's more than likely he has something serious on his mind - my 2 cents would be fireworks I hope.

Cheers.

Scott Watson: who set the watchman?

 

                                             Scott Watson: who set the watchman?

We could say that no one "set the watchman" in Scott's case, well at least apparently no one in authority. When Harper Lee wrote: "'Go Set a Watchman' it was a character Flynt who said, 'Somebody needs to be the moral compass of this town.'" No one with the power to set a moral authority in the Watson case did, being the investigation, the publicity of it, the leaks to the press, false leads, lies, threats, and bribery while plenty in the public did and were rightly outraged at the beginning because police didn't treat them seriously or in turn just ignored them.

The file this case needed was the answer to those people's questions and evidence. A situation where each account was recorded in detail, not a situation some 20 or more years later with people still revealing they went to the police with what appeared possibly strong evidence but were ignored. The "watchman" needed in this case was the police right up to the Commissioner and Minister. A watchman to say every bit of evidence was investigated and recorded before Scott Watson was charged. But instead, police were still tidying up their case to the time of Scott's trial and removing incriminating material that showed the possibility of not only of the real offenders but of a ketch. I know from that file the police who did the dirtry work because their work was messy or overconfident, perhaps expecting while they may have fitted up somebody they were confident that the noise would go away as more dirt was leaked against Scott, and his family.

But it hasn't obviously, its right back at them in their faces and the questions remain as to why they turned honest people away, dismissed them as not knowing what they really saw, that the police although not present when things worth reporting happened already some how "knew" they were of no value. What was of value to police was the witnesses that could be bent and twisted to give false testimony and of no value would be a file full of people saying what they saw on the record because that would betray the intention of the inquiry to fit up Scott Watson.

That's how big this Miscarriage of Justice is. If the police had done their job, the couple might well have still been alive, secondly the "2 hairs" would have been of no value as Scott's boat wasn't a 2-masted ketch and he went aboard alone without a single witness saying he didn't. There would have been no 2nd trip where "it didn't matter" how the couple went aboard Scott's boat because the boat they went aboard would have been found or accepted as not being a single-masted sloop.

Scott wouldn't have been in prison and it wouldn't have taken 23 years for him to have a second and hopefull fair, appeal hearing. Scott would have been unknown to the public and quite likely at least 2 men, would be serving rightfully serving life sentences. The only books, movies, or documentaries on the case would have been dealing with the truth rather than searching for it. Harper Lee's words through one her characters about a moral compass would not be on this page nor would this page exist as a testament to evil men and women prepared to send an innocent man to prison or simply look away as a "watchman" would never do.

Deeper into the Watson False Conviction

                                       

                                            Deeper into the Watson False Conviction

John Steinbeck wrote......."The gods are fallen and safely gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply in the green muck." There were many "gods" in Scott's case. 2 of them were presented as impeachable hairs but the "true fallen gods" were in fact those that said they had found the 2 hairs making them able to say their magic words: "Watson is guilty."Understanding the Watson case has always been about the 2 hairs that were said to be immovable for around 20 years, they were the glue that could not be escaped. But as Steinbeck wrote they finally did fall and it was not a little because they crashed and shattered.

While ESR might maintain its arguments of why the hairs were not found on the boat, why so many searches were required, and why there was re-searching, will now fall on deaf ears. Because when those "heroes" fell the truth filtered to the top. There were always sightings of the ketch right in Furneaux Inlet on the 31st and the next morning the first of January 98, but they were hidden and submerged in a web of lies built around the 2 hairs. The people that saw it were silenced in one way or another with an energy that could have found the ketch, even perhaps with the couple alive.

It is not the police that have had to reconcile that they were not believed when they said they saw the ketch or saw the couple aboard. It is the people that weren't believed that have struggled with that and wondered what might have been if they had been believed and not shut down, bullied, or ignored.

Photos were taken of the ketch and in at least one instance there are witnesses who saw such a photo and delivered it to someone in the family after police rejected it as important. For all those years the person that delivered the photo has wondered what happened to it and for the present, we do not know. But what we do know is that other people either surrendered photos of the ketch to the police or had police take such photos and not return them. We now know the photo file was replaced with one that makes no sense and does not reconcile with witness reports. The photo file is inconsistent with job sheets and statements which have never been altered, the information on them was mistakenly not removed when the new photo file was made. It is unavoidable truth now that photos of sightings were destroyed but not always the statements or job sheets that matched.

The points made above when drawn into a single picture shows malfeasance around the reporting of the Ketch, photos of it, and its known movements in and out of Mapua. It was already identified in those places but police either did not take statements or statements were removed from the file with excuses made that they had never existed or were irrelevant, having other innocent explanations. The cover-up was huge, but also stupid. Now, this part of the case can be heard.

There was a recent experience revealed where someone had sent photos to the police of a ketch but never got them back. On the face of it, that was like many other similar situations but with a distinct difference, one of the particular families had kept copies which may not have appeared important at the time. From those copies, the ketch photographed was excluded as being the ketch that went into the inlet on New Year's eve. However, it might well have been another vessel seen with the mystery ketch after New Year when one of the boats was seen dragging its ropes in the water, usually a sign of being in distress. While not realised at first, it was eventually seen as proof the photos had been given to police because of the copies retained. All photos taken or given to police were the personal property of the owners and are something else police have gotten away with, they should not have been disposed of without the owners' written consent. 

So what does it mean? Scott now has further proof of the file manipulation which is so poorly done that it is obvious anyway. But all those people who said they gave photos but struggled to prove it now have support because the family that sent photos kept the copies as described above. 

So when we look to the horizon and count how many battleships the Crown retains what do we see? The 2 hairs sinking, all police credibility on dismissing witness reports and photos of the ketch or sightings are sunk like the photo file. The good ship Fitzgerald with its witness enhancement methods also sunk,  There's been no sign since 2017 of Pope or his 2nd commanding officer John Rae, who took control of the photo file late in the inquiry. In 2017 they said smugly about the second RPOM application that they had seen it all before. The difference now so has the public has seen it all before - too many times.

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.

 

                                      Bob Jones says Joe Parker should retire:

While Bob Jones hasn't been infrequent with his criticism of New Zealand heavyweights Joe Parker and David Tua his latest seems unfair. Jones claims that Joe should have never taken the fight because Joe Joyce is a fighter in the style of George Foreman. I think that it is true and that it took a then aging fighter, Muhammed Ali, to stop Foreman with his "rope a dope" trick on the big man by covering up against George for most of the round before ending with a flurry of scoring punches before the bell sounded. While Ali took a battering to his body and arms he eventually caught the big man and sent him down,

This isn't to compare Joe to Ali apart from Joe in the past has shown a very quick jab and spoke about that the week before the fight. One of my criticisms of Joe is that he spoke too much when he should have been going over and over in his mind what his strategy would be and how he would change it if needed. He may have fooled himself by Joyce asking for a guarantee for a rematch before Christmas if he lost, or his lack of fights. By the middle rounds when Joe's trainer was telling him to step forward which, while promising, was still resulting in Joe taking heavy punishment albeit while scoring with a long right off his jab. That bothered Joe Joyce somewhat but he seldom stopped coming forward in a neat and compact way with quick heavy punches. Although we may have never seen Joe bob and weave that was always effective for Mike Tyson against big punchers until he got his left hook in.

Joyce was never deterred from his direct attack which is probably the point Bob Jones was making but that didn't mean Joe could not have adopted going left and right before stepping in and mixing his offense up a lot more even employing the rope a dope now and then. If Joyce's attack was predictable Joe should have looked to mix things up like getting in and pushing Joyce back in the way Evander bullied Tyson. As it is, there may still be the next time as Joe has come back and beaten fighters that have beaten him, he has a great coach and he might be more circumspect now about counting his chickens before they hatch. He also would have a sound plan against a fighter he learned a lot about last Sunday morning.

Boxing: Sir Bob Jones calls for Joseph Parker to end his boxing career after latest defeat - NZ Herald