Injustice worst punishment
date with her love life. Simple things, such as trying to find a place to live, were painful.
In recent months, Gail had been looking for a home and had to disclose to prospective landlords that she was a convicted murderer on parole. Mostly, she just never heard back.
I have been through some of this before, with Teina Pora. While their cases are very different, the trauma of trying to get on with your life while wearing the murderer label is hard enough when you are guilty – it is unbearable if you are innocent.
Gail is an incredibly strong woman, intelligent too – but she’s not perfect. Over the past few months, it was becoming obvious that she was struggling to cope with life. Her recall is perhaps confirmation that we’d not done enough to support her as the painfully slow work on her appeal continues.
There are many, many issues with the case against Gail, but a feature that taints the case in its entirety is the brutal treatment of female witnesses by some police. There is credible evidence that three women, including Gail, were heavily pressured by police to give evidence against police’s primary target, Stephen Stone.
Two of the women found the pressure too much, and told juries about the supposed murder of Deane Fuller-Sandys at Gail Maney’s home. Both women have since retracted their evidence, swearing that no murder ever occurred – while telling remarkably similar stories of how police solicited their evidence.
All three women say they were threatened with losing their children if they didn’t co-operate with police.
What remains of the case is the evidence of two male witnesses who say that Fuller-Sandys was murdered on the orders of Maney. Both men are relentless liars, by their own admission.
In exchange for their evidence, they were given immunity from prosecution for the savage rape and murder of Leah Stephens. Yes, you read that right, they admitted involvement in raping and murdering Stephens, but were granted immunity and walked free. I have grave doubts about everything the men told police and two juries, but, nevertheless, it is difficult to stomach that two men who admitted rape and murder are free, while Gail is once again back in prison.
For Gail’s lawyer, Julie-Anne Kincade, QC, and our team there is a sense of sadness; what could and should we have done to keep Gail out of prison; are we working too slowly; should we have filed an appeal by now? Now that Gail is back behind bars, the pressure comes on us to get our new evidence in order and file her appeal. Part of that is made more difficult by delays in obtaining some documents from police. Each day Gail is in prison is an extension of an injustice that I think, one day, will be regarded as the worst our country has seen.
Tim McKinnel is an investigator and former police officer. He was instrumental in the campaign to overturn Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction. He has been working on the case against Gail Maney, who in 1999 was found guilty of ordering the killing of Deane Fuller-Sandys, who disappeared a decade earlier. At the time it was thought Fuller-Sandys had died while fishing at Whatipu, on Auckland’s west coast. His body has never been found. The case was made into a podcast in 2018.