"Convicted double-murderer Scott
Watson will be back in court today, over how a long-awaited meeting with
the father of Olivia Hope will play out. Watson, who's serving a life sentence for the
murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in 1998, is challenging
Corrections' refusal to allow a journalist to be present when the pair
meet in prison. Ms Hope's father Gerald has no objection to North & South journalist Mike White's presence, as it'll mean he can finally put his questions to Watson. "I believe he's most probably the best-equipped - an
independent journalist, a respected journalist, and I have no
objection," Mr Hope told Paul Henry on Wednesday. The presence of a journalist is Watson's one
condition to ensure the meeting is fairly documented. Mr White
interviewed Watson last year, the prisoner saying police picked on him
because his criminal record made him "an easy target". Ms Hope and Mr Smart were last seen in the early
hours of January 1, 1998. Their bodies were never found. Watson was
convicted in 1999, but has always maintained his innocence. After initially being pleased someone had been found
responsible for his daughter's disappearance, it didn't take long for
Mr Hope to have his doubts. "My wife
and I and family sat through the 11 or 12 weeks of the trial. We were
emotionally charged. We were listening for the conviction, we got a
conviction. We walked away from that court feeling justice had been
done. "But it was a time after that I suddenly was confronted with some of the inadequacies of the evidence."
If the meeting does happen, he's not expecting Watson to confess even if he did do it. "It's
pretty hard to get a confession out of a convicted person. My plea is,
Scott Watson, when we do meet, let's have an honest discussion.".........Watson's supporters gathered around the country at the weekend to call for his release. He's next up for parole in December."
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/scott-watsons-fight-for-a-journalist-heads-to-court-2016081706#axzz4HXaHHb6J
See Wikipedia report at the link below: Ben Smart (aged 21) and Olivia Hope (aged 17) were last seen in the early hours of
New Year's Day,
1 January 1998, by water taxi driver Guy Wallace, who transported them
to a moored yacht in Endeavour Inlet off Furneaux Lodge, located in the
Marlborough Sounds,
New Zealand. The close friends had been celebrating New Year's Eve at
the lodge with other partygoers. After leaving the party and discovering
that the boat they had arrived on, Tamarack, was overcrowded, they
decided to look for alternative accommodation for the night. They
transferred from Tamarack to a Furneaux Lodge water taxi driven by
Wallace, intending to go back ashore.
[4] Aboard the small water taxi was a man who would later become crucial to the police investigation.
[5]
According to Wallace and another couple who also rode in the water
taxi, the man offered Ben and Olivia a place to stay aboard what he said
was his vessel, which Wallace described as a two-masted
ketch.
The pair accepted the offer and all three boarded the boat at a time
estimated between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. It was the last time the pair were
seen. Police speculated that they had been murdered, but no bodies were
found despite extensive searching in the months that followed. To this
day, Smart and Hope remain missing. Police investigations began on 2 January 1998, after the pair's
parents reported them missing. The case was assigned the name Operation
TAM by police. In the following months, police came to believe that the
unidentified man was Scott Watson, although his yacht was not a
two-masted ketch. Police charged Watson with murder and after an 11-week
trial he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a
minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
[6] Watson still protests his innocence; however after fruitless efforts, all avenues of appeal have failed.
Murder arrest and conviction" Scott Watson was arrested for the murders on 15 June 1998, two weeks before his 27th birthday. He had 48 prior convictions,
[7][8]
mainly from when he was a teenager, for burglary, theft, cannabis
offences, two of possessing an offensive weapon, and one of assault when
he was 16. He had been imprisoned for two short periods in 1989 and
1990. He had just one minor conviction in the eight years leading up to
1998.
[9] He was tried and convicted of the murders in May 1999 after an 11-week trial.
[10: Appeals and controversies: The
defence appealed Watson’s conviction, and the case went to the Court of
Appeal in April and May 2000. Three Appeal Court judges heard
submissions from both the prosecution and the defence, but decided there
was no new evidence to recommend a second trial.
[11] They disregarded the defence’s submission that the “two trip” theory had appeared “out of the blue” late in the trial.
[11] Questions have been raised about the manner of the police
investigation, notably by Mike Kalaugher, who in 2001 published a book
which was critical of methods allegedly used by police to obtain
Watson's conviction, and by Keith Hunter, in a 2003 television
documentary and a 2006 book. In November 2000, after the Court of Appeal hearing, a witness who
testified at his trial contacted the Weekend Herald to say his evidence
given under oath was "nothing more than an act". He said he was being
threatened by gang members in prison; he was coming up for parole and
was put under pressure by police to testify and "I agreed on the basis
that my life was getting threatened". The witness changed his story at
least twice more which led Watson's lawyers to conclude he was
completely unreliable.
[12] A 2010 report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority cleared
police of allegations by Keith Hunter and Chris Watson. It found the
police investigation had fallen short of best practice in areas which
"had no significant bearing on the outcome of the investigation". No
evidence was found that would support Hunter's other claims.
[13] Watson has unsuccessfully applied for a royal pardon.
[14] [15] In June 2015 Watson successfully challenged at court the Corrections
Department's refusal to allow him to be interviewed about his case by
North and South journalist Mike White.
[16] Also in June 2015 the first hearing of the Parole Board took place.
Watson was denied parole on the basis of two failed drug tests and an
unfavourable psychological report that attested Watson "a very high
risk" of committing violent acts if he was released from prison.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Watson
