Craig accused of doctoring texts

Rachel MacGregor has accused Colin Craig of doctoring text messages sent between the pair, and employing a ‘‘convicted criminal’’ to recover evidence.

Screenshots purporting to be taken from an old phone of Craig’s have been presented by him as evidence in the High Court at Auckland, where the former Conservative Party leader and Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater are suing each other for defamation.

Craig is representing himself and cross examined Rachel MacGregor, his former press secretary, yesterday.

However, asking MacGregor about a text exchange shown in the screenshots regarding an employment review in May 2012, she refused to accept their authenticity.

‘‘Just to be clear I don’t accept any of these text messages,’’ MacGregor said.

‘‘Why’s that, Miss MacGregor?’’ Justice Kit Toogood asked.

MacGregor said she doubted Craig had been able to take screenshots from his old Nokia cellphone.

‘‘I do [doubt it] because he has doctored so many of these text messages,’’ she said to Toogood.

The screenshots were selective in that they mostly showed texts MacGregor sent, but many of Craig’s texts were missing, the court had earlier heard.

Earlier in the trial, while being cross examined by Slater’s lawyer Brian Henry, Craig said there had been ‘‘deliberate selection’’ of MacGregor’s texts, because his lawyers had requested them.

Asked if his texts could be found, Craig said that wasn’t possible because he hadn’t retained his old phone.

Yesterday, MacGregor continually refused to accept Craig’s evidence. ‘‘Also I believe that you got these text messages from a convicted criminal with dishonesty charges,’’ she said.

‘‘Unless you can get something from a reliable source - not someone who’s been in jail - then I’m not prepared to give evidence off documents like this.’’

MacGregor was referring to former Christchurch detective Mike Chappell, who was convicted on 10 dishonesty charges in 2002, and who Craig employed to recover texts forensically.

Chappell was jailed for three years and nine months; his sentence was altered to home detention after a year. His offending included preparing a false summary of facts for the courts.

Craig said during his cross examination earlier in the trial that after his Nokia cellphone was disposed of, he got a smart tablet and kept using it while MacGregor worked for him.

To obtain further texts, which have also been entered as evidence, in 2015 he sent the tablet to Chappell, who acted as a ‘‘forensics expert’’. After the tablet was sent back to him, it was accidentally ‘‘destroyed’’.

‘‘It fell off the roof of my car and got run over,’’ Craig told Henry.

But the evidence obtained by Chappell was also missing texts. Craig admitted they were not ‘‘allinclusive’’ and were only what could be recovered.