Roigard loses bid to have murder conviction overturned
A Taranaki man jailed for the murder of his son has failed in his attempt to have the conviction overturned.
In February 2016, David Noel Roigard was jailed for life, with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years, after he was found guilty of killing his 27-year-old son Aaron Roigard. He was also found guilty of eight charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.
The Crown said the motive for the June 2, 2014 murder was David Roigard’s attempt to conceal that he had stolen more than $66,000 from his only son over several years.
The body of Aaron Roigard, a father-of-two, has never been found but he is believed to be buried in the South Taranaki area.
In July 2018, the case was heard in the Court of Appeal by Justices French, Cooper and Clifford.
The trio’s judgment, released yesterday, outlined the four grounds of appeal put forward by David Roigard’s lawyer, Robert Lithgow QC.
One aspect of the case under the spotlight was the Crown’s reliance on evidence from inmates.
Two prisoners, who spent time in jail with the defendant, gave evidence at the trial. Both were granted permanent name suppression by the court.
One of them, referred to in the judgment as ‘‘F’’, gave evidence that David Roigard had told him that he had hit his son three times with a wood splitter and then disposed of his body.
The wood splitter found at the Opunake farm where the defendant lived had been ruled out as the murder weapon by a forensic scientist.
Lithgow QC argued the evidence should have been inadmissible by law and excluded from the case.
‘‘Mr Lithgow was highly critical of the admission of such evidence by New Zealand courts, decrying what he described as the courts’ direct involvement in the ‘corrupt practice of procuring paid witnesses in support of state allegations’,’’ the judgment said.
He also submitted the trial judge had provided inadequate directions to the jury regarding the two inmates’ evidence.
All grounds of the appeal were dismissed by the three judges, as well as David Roigard’s attempt to have his prison term cut.
Lithgow QC argued the case did not meet the statutory criteria for the imposition of a minimum non-parole period at all, but if one was imposed it should have been less than 19 years.
However, the Court of Appeal judges were satisfied the combination of factors involved in the case were ‘‘sufficient’’ to impose the minimum term of 19 years.
This included the breach of trust involved in the crime and the ongoing concealment of Aaron Roigard’s body, the defendant’s refusal to tell anyone where his son was buried and the pain and distress this caused the victim’s partner and children.
In April 2018, David Roigard was jailed for three-and-a-half years on five charges of indecent assault on a girl under 12, offending committed in the early 1980s in Taranaki.
The prison sentence runs concurrently alongside the term imposed for Aaron Roigard’s murder.
He had been found guilty of the sex charges following a jury trial in the Whanganui District Court.