Tamihere murder trial evidence ‘all a lie’, court told
‘‘It was all a lie’’: that is the allegation levelled at a jailhouse informant who gave evidence at David Tamihere’s 1990 double-murder trial.
The man, known as ‘‘Witness C’’, gave evidence at the original trial that Tamihere confessed to him in prison that he killed Swedish tourists Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen after he sexually assaulted them, before dumping their bodies at sea. He also claimed Tamihere gave Hoglin’s watch to his son.
Tamihere was convicted of the Swedes’ murders and served 20 years in prison.
Witness C is now being tried in the High Court at Auckland for perjury. Self-proclaimed jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor is behind the private prosecution and is being represented by lawyer Murray Gibson.
Gibson told the jury yesterday how, after Tamihere’s conviction, Witness C signed an affidavit before a solicitor in 1995, saying Tamihere never made any confessions and that police had fed him the information. He alleged that police offered him up to $100,000 and help with parole.
In 2007, Gibson claimed Witness C wrote to Tamihere again, detailing his false claims.
‘‘We have got a murder trial, no bodies located, you can imagine a witness such as [Witness C] would be persuasive and would be very significant. But ... the prosecution says it was all a lie. And [Witness C] in his affidavit and subsequent letter in 2007 admitted as much.’’
The 2007 letter would be proven to be written by Witness C, he said.
Defence counsel Adam Simperingham said ‘‘there was no perjury’’. He told the jury that although the evidence Witness C gave at the trial was incorrect, he was only relaying what Tamihere had disclosed to him.
He told the jury to consider whether Tamihere had intentionally given false accounts of what had happened to muddy the waters of what really happened.
Tamihere’s brother and former Labour politician, John Tamihere, took the stand and explained how Witness C phoned him in 1995, saying he wanted to recant.
‘‘I was somewhat skeptical about the conversation.’’
A further two conversations were had with Witness C, in which John Tamihere told him recanting his evidence could have serious ramifications. Eventually, he was convinced that Witness C’s intentions were pure.
Ten months after Tamihere’s conviction, Hoglin’s remains and his watch were discovered in the Coromandel about 70km from where the murders were alleged to have taken place. Paakkonen’s remains have never been found.
Witness C faces eight charges of perjury and one charge of obstruction of justice for giving false evidence.