Witness C sticks by evidence given at trial

"This is your time to man up.'' Prosecuting lawyer Murray Gibson

A jailhouse informant who gave crucial evidence to one of New Zealand’s most infamous murder trials has been told to ‘‘man up’’ and start telling the truth.

The man, known as Witness C, is on trial at the High Court in Auckland for perjury. He is accused of lying at David Tamihere’s 1990 double murder trial, where he gave evidence saying Tamihere confessed to the killings of Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen.

Following the trial he recanted on his evidence, saying police offered him a large sum of money to tell a fabricated story.

But Witness C now says he was telling the truth at the trial, and denies he fabricated his evidence. He told the court he flip-flopped because he was threatened in jail for being a snitch.

Prosecuting lawyer Murray Gibson told Witness C yesterday he was responsible for Tamihere serving 20 years for the crime.

‘‘This is your time to man up, here is your opportunity to tell us you fabricated evidence in that trial. Do you want to take it?,’’ Gibson said.

‘‘Not at all. Everything I told at the trial was told by by him,’’ Witness C said.

Tamihere denied on Tuesday he had ever spoken to Witness C about details of his case.

Witness C told the jury how he met Tamihere in the late 1980s in Paremoremo Prison. Tamihere had been arrested for the theft of the Swedish couple’s car.

Tamihere went on to tell him he had first come across Hoglin and Paakkonen in a picnic area.

‘‘He said at some stage he had knocked the guy off. He said he had disposed of the body out at sea, which of course I found out later on wasn’t true.’’

Witness C said Tamihere had taken Hoglin’s watch and later gave it to his son. He also said Tamihere had recounted the moment two trampers came across him while he was with Paakkonen.

‘‘He said Heidi was that terrified that she didn’t say anything.’’

Following the conversation, Witness C contacted police to say Tamihere had confessed.

Witness C eventually gave evidence at Tamihere’s trial, along with two other jail house informants, that Tamihere had confessed.

However, in 1995, Witness C contacted John Tamihere, David’s brother, to say he had lied at the trial because of police pressure. Witness C eventually signed an affidavit confirming he had lied.

A video interview between Witness C and the late Sir Paul Holmes was played to the jury yesterday. In the interview, filmed in 1996, Witness C explains he recanted on his evidence after he felt sorry for getting an innocent man locked up.

In 2007, Witness C also penned a letter to David Tamihere again confirming he had lied at trial after striking a deal with police.

Witness C said he told the truth at trial, and only recanted his evidence after being threatened numerous times following Tamihere’s conviction.

Ten months after Tamihere’s conviction, Hoglin’s remains were discovered in the Coromandel by pig hunters about 70km from where the murders were alleged to have taken place. His watch was found with him – contradicting Witness C’s evidence. Paakkonen has never been found.

Self-proclaimed jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor is behind the private prosecution and is being represented by lawyer Murray Gibson.