Police verdict next week on Barclay
A decision on whether to reopen the police investigation into alleged criminal recordings made by National MP Todd Barclay is expected next week.
A police spokesman said work was still under way to understand the nature of new information that has emerged in recent days.
‘‘We are currently gathering and assessing information, and expect to make a decision early next week on what further steps may be required by police.’’
New Zealand’s youngest MP will not seek re-election following an explosive set of allegations he covertly recorded his electorate office staff member Glenys Dickson, spoke about it with the prime minister, and falsely suggested in a media report that Dickson was the subject of disciplinary proceedings.
It is illegal to intercept any recordings you are not a party to. When the revelations first hit headlines on Tuesday morning, Barclay was adamant he had done nothing wrong, and Prime Minister Bill English was unclear on who told him what/when about the existence of the recordings.
English firmed up his memory four hours later, when he admitted it was Barclay who had told him he had left a dictaphone running in the office of Dickson, without her knowledge. English had made a statement to police stating that, on April 27, last year.
Barclay refused to co-operate with the police investigation, which was eventually closed with police citing a lack of evidence to execute search warrants.
But following English’s about- turn, Barclay said he accepted English’s version of events.
That statement is one of a number of new pieces of information police are assessing as they consider reopening the investigation. It could be treated as an admission from Barclay that he made recordings of Dickson without her knowledge and without being in a conversation with her.
The statement may add further weight to a text from English to the Clutha-Southland electorate chair that recordings existed.
Questions have been raised over whether police let the matter drop too soon, when Barclay went back on public statements that he would co-operate with the police investigation, only to have his lawyer communicate to senior officers heading it that he would not be speaking with them.
Comparisons have been drawn with the police reaction to the ‘‘teapot tapes’’ scandal of the 2011 election, which saw them raid newsrooms for evidence of illegally-made recordings after former Prime Minister John Key laid a complaint that freelance journalist Bradley Ambrose deliberately recorded a conversation between himself and former ACT leader John Banks.
Ambrose maintained it was accidental, and Key eventually settled with Ambrose accepting he did not deliberately record the conversation, ‘‘or otherwise behave improperly’’.