SOUNDS MURDER
Fresh heartache for families
Murder victim Olivia Hope’s parents will tune into a new TV docu-drama about her killer — but fear it will be traumatic.
In one of New Zealand’s most controversial cases, 17-year-old Olivia and Ben Smart, 21, boarded a yacht in the Marlborough Sounds with a man in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1998 and were never seen again.
Eighteen months later Watson, who was from Picton, was convicted of their murders. He has always maintained his innocence.
Next Sunday, TVNZ docu-drama Doubt: The Scott Watson Case questions the evidence that led to him being jailed for the crime.
Olivia Hope’s father Gerald told the Herald on Sunday he and his wife Janice had turned down an offer to participate in the programme.
“We felt it would open old wounds, so why relive the pain and anguish of losing our daughter under those circumstances,” he said. “We decided there would be no value in it for us to sift through it all again.
“There is more than sufficient comment about the case in the public space now and there is more than adequate video footage of the trial, so we said no.”
Hope said the family was fully informed of the intention to make the programme before Production Shed TV was granted more than $1 million by NZ on Air. The family declined a private preview.
“We will just wait and watch it next week along with the rest of New Zealand.”
The show’s presenter, Massey University law professor Chris Gallavin, will argue Watson is a victim of a miscarriage of justice because the trial and investigation were unfair. The programme will reconsider forensic evidence and key witnesses will speak publicly for the first time.
In November 1999 Watson was sentenced to life in prison with a 17-year non-parole period.
Hope said Watson could be out next year but he was hopeful of meeting him in prison soon.
“The fact is, he has served his time and could get parole,” Hope said.
“The Department of Corrections and Watson’s lawyer have been in discussions about us meeting.
“My wish is to meet him as soon as possible, hopefully in December. There are a few things that don’t stack up and I still want to ask him a few questions.”
Smart and Hope were among hundreds of party-goers at Furneaux Lodge in Endeavour Inlet in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year’s Eve 1997. Water taxi driver Guy Wallace said that, in the early hours, he dropped the pair and a man at a two-masted yacht in the inlet.
Smart and Hope were never seen again and no bodies were found. Scott Watson was also in the Marlborough Sounds, on his single-masted sloop, Blade.
Although neither he nor his boat fitted Wallace’s descriptions, Watson was arrested in June 1998.
Last year Watson gave his first media interview to North & South magazine — and maintained he had no involvement in the disappearance of the pair. New Zealand Police did not respond to questions from the Herald on Sunday when approached for comment.