Scott Watson

Scott Watson
Born (1971-06-28) 28 June 1971
Criminal charge Homicide
Criminal penalty Life

Scott Watson (born 28 June 1971) is a New Zealander who was convicted in May 1999 of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope on his boat Blade on 1 January 1998. The bodies of Smart and Hope have never been found. A sonar search of the entrance to Tory channel, an area of interest to the investigating police, found "there is no indication that the missing remains of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope are present or visible on the sea bed inside the search area".[1]

Watson is serving a life sentence with a non-parole period of 17 years.[2] The New Zealand Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by Watson. In 2003 Watson's lawyers Mike Antunovic and Greg King applied to the Privy Council, it found no grounds for further appeal.[3]

Disappearance of Smart and Hope

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.[17][18]

Other events

Watson married Coral Branch in Paremoremo Prison in 2004.[7] They separated in 2007.[19]

In 2007, Watson was found guilty by a magistrate of assaulting another inmate in Paparua Prison. In 2008, his appeal against that conviction failed.[20]

See also

List of murder convictions without a body

References

  1. ↑ T.P. Grubb, Lieutenant Commander Royal New Zealand Navy, Operation Tam Maritime Assistance Post Activity Report of RNZN to Operation TAM, 22 September 2000.
  2. ↑ "Watson appeal goes to court". Television New Zealand. 4 July 2000. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "Privy Council rejects Watson case". TVNZ.
  4. ↑ "NZ Police: page 10, para. 34: "Review of Detective Inspector Pinkham's Report into the Mr C Watson Complaint Regarding Operation TAM Affidavit"" (PDF). Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "crime.co.nz". Crime.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  6. ↑ "The Queen v Watson [2000] NZCA 46; [2003] NZAR 193 (8 May 2000)". Nzlii.org. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  7. 1 2 "Scott Watson's wife talks of her love". One News. 27 June 2004. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  8. ↑ http://www.presscouncil.org.nz/display_ruling.php?case_number=2029
  9. ↑ White, Mike (December 2007). "Sounds of Disquiet". North & South (261): 46–56.
  10. ↑ "Murder, they said". The Listener (January 5–11, 2008 Vol 212 No 3530)
  11. 1 2 "The Queen v Watson". NZCA 46; [2003] NZAR 193. 8 May 2000.
  12. ↑ Witness confesses: I lied about Scott Watson, New Zealand Herald
  13. ↑ NZPA (13 August 2010). "Report backs police handling of Marlborough Sounds murders". The Waikato Times. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  14. ↑ Milne, Rebecca (15 March 2009). "Pardon plea from Watson". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  15. ↑ "No royal pardon for Scott Watson". Stuff.
  16. ↑ MARTIN VAN BEYNEN (4 June 2015). "Scott Watson wins bid for interview with journalist". Stuff.
  17. ↑ Hume, Myles (8 July 2015). "Scott Watson failed two drug tests behind bars". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  18. ↑ MYLES HUME (9 July 2015). "Convicted killer Scott Watson challenges psych reports used in parole hearing". Stuff.
  19. ↑ Cook, Stephen (28 October 2007). "Wife of Sounds killer to get jailhouse baby". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  20. ↑ "Scott Watson loses assault appeal". The New Zealand Herald. NZPA. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

Further reading

External links

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