Whittall’s charges go to appeal
The families of those killed in Pike River mine have been granted a Supreme Court hearing to appeal the decision to drop charges against Peter Whittall.
Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her 21-year-old son, Ben, in the 2010 disaster, and Anna Osborne, who lost her husband, Milton, sought a judicial review of the decision by Worksafe NZ to drop the charges against Whittall, who was then Pike River’s boss.
Twenty-nine men died when the West Coast coal mine exploded on November 19, 2010.
Whittall initially faced 12 health and safety charges. All were dropped in December 2013.
Pike River Coal Ltd, the mine owner, pleaded guilty to nine charges and was fined $760,000.
Whittall offered to make a voluntary payment of $3.41 million from his insurer if Worksafe did not offer any evidence against him. The court ordered the reparation.
The families and two survivors received payments.
Osborne said earlier the families had no say in whether to accept or reject the $3.4m, which amounted to $110,000 per family.
She previously called it ‘‘blood money’’.
The Court of Appeal upheld a High Court decision to reject the judicial review in February. It found the decision by Worksafe was ‘‘lawfully made’’.
‘‘As a matter of law, the prosecutor was entitled to consider and give weight to a conditional reparation undertaking as one factor in deciding whether or not to pursue the prosecution further,’’ the Court of Appeal said.
However, a Supreme Court judgment, released yesterday, granted the families leave to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.
Lawyer Nigel Hampton QC, who represents Osborne and Rockhouse, said they would argue the payment to families was an ‘‘unlawful bargain’’, not ‘‘just a voluntary payment’’.
‘‘Historically you should not be able to pay money or have money paid on your behalf to have a prosecution dismissed,’’ he said.
Hampton expected the matter to be heard in the Supreme Court later this year.
Meanwhile, new footage from deep inside the Pike River Mine raised ’’serious questions’’ about the Government’s refusal to reenter the mine drift, Rockhouse said.
The newly-released 2011 footage is of a deep section of the mine known as borehole 44 and shows no sign of underground fire.
Prime Minister Bill English said he was advised the footage had been assessed before as part of the decision-making around the mine.
‘‘The assessment that matters is not so much about whether the explosion affected all parts of the mine – there can be ongoing discussion about that – it’s whether it’s safe to go in there after the explosion.’’
Judgments had to be made based on the best evidence at the time, and there had been no authoritative description of everything that happened in the explosion.
He was looking for more information from an unmanned entry into the mine, which was expected to happen shortly.
Labour Party leader Andrew Little said the footage was a ‘‘compelling reason’’ to grant the Pike River families’ wishes to re-enter the drift, a 2.3-kilometre tunnel leading into the mine.
Rockhouse said the footage showed there was an urgent need for answers.
‘‘New Zealand has been told there’s nothing but ashes and dust down there, they’ve been told that the drift can’t be made safe to enter and investigate.
‘‘That’s just not true, my boy is down there and if pallets and paper are intact then so is his body.
‘‘It feels like they’re more interested in making this go away until after the election than in getting answers,’’ Rockhouse said.