Attack on jail house ‘confession’

A Taranaki man convicted of murdering his son was found guilty on evidence ‘‘bought and paid for from a proven fraudster’’, the man’s lawyer says.

David Noel Roigard, 53, of Opunake, has appealed against his conviction for murdering son Aaron in June 2014.

At the Court of Appeal in Wellington yesterday, Roigard’s lawyer Robert Lithgow, QC, said the use of paid jail house witnesses had reached the stage where judges were involved in ‘‘paying’’ them for giving evidence by reducing prison sentences.

After the perjury prosecution of a jail house confession witness from the case against David Tamihere – convicted in 1990 of murdering two Swedish tourists – the time had come for the use of cellmate confessions to be reconsidered, Lithgow said.

In Roigard’s case, a prisoner whose name was suppressed said Roigard admitted hitting his son on the back of the head with a wood splitter.

The splitter that was found was ‘‘positively not’’ a murder weapon, based on scientific evidence, so the Crown was reduced to saying there must have been another wood splitter that had not been found, Lithgow said.

‘‘How do you shake that? Who says? A con-man says.’’

In his submissions, Lithgow said the evidence was obtained unfairly – bought and paid for from a proven fraudster.

Judges gave warnings to juries about the use of the witnesses but research showed the warnings were futile, he said.

Research also contradicted the idea that witnesses put aside the ‘‘prison code’’ against helping authorities, at a risk to themselves. In reality, people were queueing up to give evidence if there was something in it for them, Lithgow said.

Roigard said he didn’t kill his son but agreed to his lawyer suggesting an alternative position, that the Crown had not excluded the possibility of manslaughter.

Putting the alternative ‘‘destroyed’’ the central defence, and relied on the evidence of the very witness whose truthfulness was attacked, Lithgow said.

Roigard was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 19 years before he could be considered for parole. He also appealed against the non-parole period.

Lithgow said there was no reason for it to be more than 17 years. It was natural, but incorrect, to say it was worse to kill one of your own children, he said.

After a four-week trial a jury took about six hours to find Roigard guilty in December 2015 of killing his son, Aaron Roigard, on June 2, 2014.

Roigard had allegedly stolen more than $66,000 the 27-year-old had given his father to invest for him.

The Crown said Aaron Roigard was killed to prevent a looming confrontation, or the confrontation took place and he was killed to prevent him going to the police.

His body has not been found. The appeal hearing is expected to take two days.