Front-page people
As another year comes to a close, MICHAEL DALY looks back at the names it was impossibletoavoid inthe news during
Large German Kim Dotcom kept the country entertained throughout 2012, after more than 70 police, in co-operation with the FBI, raided the mansion where he lives on Auckland’s northern rural outskirts.
The January raid took place after US officials sought to extradite Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz.
Dotcom spent a month in custody, before being granted bail, on charges of fraud, money laundering and copyright infringement on his popular Megaupload file-sharing website. Dotcom started the site in 2005 and US prosecutors shut it down in January.
Dotcom denies the charges against him. Aided by official bungling, he has used a deft touch for public relations to swing public support to his cause.
In September, it was confirmed the Government Communications Security Bureau illegally carried out surveillance on Dotcom, who has permanent residence in this country, meaning the GCSB is forbidden to spy on him. Prime Minister John Key apologised to Dotcom for the spying.
A sideline to the main drama developed, involving ACT leader John Banks and anonymous donations Dotcom made to him during Banks’ campaign for the Auckland mayoralty.
Dotcom put out a song, using samples of Banks’ interviews on the issue, which included the chorus: ‘‘That politician’s got amnesia again.’’ During the year Dotcom also popped into the public gallery in Parliament, took steps towards launching a new filesharing site and announced he would use funds raised from suing the US to provide a second major undersea internet cable to New Zealand.
After several delays, his extradition hearing is due to be held in August 2013. Olympics in London.
Months before the event, Adams asked for her own room but ended up having to share accommodation at the athletes’ village, even though lower-profile Kiwi track and field athletes had rooms to themselves.
She was also frustrated the competition uniform she received was too small.
But the worst shock came when Adams discovered only hours before her title defence that officials had failed to register her for the competition. She came perilously close to not being allowed to compete and officials had to grovel to get her name on the start list.
Adams was off her best in the competition in early August, finishing second behind Ostapchuk.
A week later the Belarusian was stripped of the title for using a banned steroid. Adams said she could not forgive Ostapchuk, who had ‘‘robbed me of the moment’’.
Six weeks after the competition, Adams received her gold medal at an emotional ceremony in
Auckland.
When the time came that one of the country’s most reviled criminals had to be released from jail, no-one wanted him in their town.
In the end, Whanganui drew the short straw, and is now the home of Stewart Murray Wilson, otherwise known as the Beast of Blenheim.
Wilson had been jailed for 21 years in 1996 for crimes that shocked the nation. Among 22 charges covering rape, stupefying, bestiality, ill treatment of children and indecent assault, were revelations he made his daughter eat whitebait and Weet-Bix from a bowl with the cats, and drugged his partner, forcing her to have sex with other women and the family dog.
His sentence was due to officially end in December 2015 but the Parole Board had to release him on September 1 because he had served his mandatory jail term under old sentencing rules, despite being assessed as a high risk of reoffending.
A 10-year extended supervision order means the Corrections Department could monitor him until 2025, when he will be 78.
So in late August, Wilson dominated the country’s headlines as he was moved into a self-care unit on Whanganui Prison grounds, before he was re-housed in a relocated home, also on the grounds.
Under one of 17 special conditions imposed by the Parole Board, he is being tracked by global positioning technology while on parole.
Wanganui District Council tried to have the decision to let him live in their town reconsidered but a High Court judge, while sympathising with the council, said Wilson had to live somewhere.
The council also voted to ban Wilson from parks, reserves and recreational spaces but reversed the decision after the Howard League for Penal Reform threatened legal proceedings.
Bret McKenzie was the multitalented, energetic schoolboy who grew up to become a multi- talented, multimedia star.
He’s had a fair few good years but 2012 stood out because it included both an Academy Award and an honour from the Queen.
In February, McKenzie won an Oscar for his original song Man or Muppet in The Muppets film, celebrating the occasion with a photogenic leap on the red carpet.
Then halfway through the year he received a fancy envelope telling him he had been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.
Three-quarters into 2012 and McKenzie was in the movie Two Little Boys, playing Invercargill banker Nige, who enlists the help of his estranged, slightly psychotic friend Deano to get rid of the body of a backpacker Nige accidentally killed. McKenzie also reappears briefly as an elf in The Hobbit, after even briefer appearances in the Lord of the Rings still got some fans excited.
Towards the end of the year it was announced that McKenzie’s Muppets song had been nominated for a Grammy and that he would be writing songs for the second Muppets movie.
Life has also not been too shabby for McKenzie’s Flight of the Conchords partner Jemaine Clement, who got to play evil alien Boris the Animal in Men in Black III, alongside Will Smith, Josh Brolin, and Tommy Lee Jones.
The All Blacks captain has embarked on a six-month
sabbatical from rugby after a year in which he led the team with such composure and tenacity that commentators were left struggling for superlatives.
Some called him the greatest All Black ever but, regardless of where he ranks, during 2012 Richie McCaw was so frequently the man pulling his team forward.
After the effort of winning the Rugby World Cup in 2011, there were fears New Zealand could fall away in 2012.
Instead, as the All Blacks became more settled through the middle of their programme, hopes grew they might win all 14 games.
Australia, and then more emphatically, England ruined the party but 12 wins was enough for the All Blacks to be chosen as the IRB’s team of the year, even if Dan Carter headed off McCaw for player of the year.
Who killed Feilding farmer Scott Guy?
His brother-in-law Ewen Macdonald was charged with the murder but denied the crime, and a jury found him not guilty midway through the year.
The country was captivated by the case, first by the mystery surrounding the killing, then by the trial, where the prosecution claimed there had been tension between Guy and Macdonald about their roles on the farm, housing, cars and finances. Macdonald had been married to Guy’s sister, Anna, for 10 years and they had four children together. After the trial Anna Guy told TV3’s 60 Minutes the marriage had been full of secrets and lies. Looking back she could see it was unhealthy. Tensions on the farm had poisoned Macdonald and he began to withdraw from the family.
Scott Guy died from a shotgun blast to the throat at close range in the driveway of the Feilding farm, while on his way to milking in the early morning darkness in July 2010.
Although he denied the murder, Macdonald did admit six charges rising from night-time ‘‘missions’’.
They included the theft of two trophy stags from a Colyton farm, emptying milk from a vat and burning down a whare on a Himatangi farm, killing 19 calves on a Foxton farm, burning down an old house ready to be removed from Scott and Kylee Guy’s section of the family property and damaging their new house.