Hope and Watson ‘both victims’

Gerald Hope and Scott Watson – the man found guilty of murdering Hope’s daughter Olivia, and Ben Smart – agreed during a meeting in prison they were ‘‘both victims’’.

Hope and Smart disappeared in the early hours of 1998 after a New Year’s Eve party at Furneaux Lodge, in the Marlborough Sounds.

The meeting, which took place in November, was approved by the Department of Corrections after a judicial review.

Brief excerpts of the conversation have been released by North & South, which is running an article on the meeting in its issue published yesterday.

‘‘You and I are both victims. You believe you’re a victim,’’ Hope said at one point.

‘‘I know I’m a victim – I know I’m a victim’’, Watson, who maintains his innocence, replied.

‘‘We’re a victim,’’ Hope said. ‘‘We never got the truth. We haven’t got the truth yet.

‘‘Most people have got the comfort of the police, the legal system having done their job, so that’s why you’re in here. That’s the bottom line,’’ Hope said.

‘‘Most people just get on with their lives, they don’t want to have anything change what’s already been decided. And I know that, I understand that.’’

The meeting at Rolleston Prison, near Christchurch, took place over two threehour sessions.

Senior writer Mike White, who wrote the article, said there were never going to be handshakes: ‘‘There was too much distrust, too many preconceptions.’’

Hope said: ‘‘I respect what you say, but there are questions I’ll be asking today so I really, really need to know we’re getting it from your heart and your head. And it’s got to be absolutely honest’’.

‘‘And you also need to be prepared to hear the truth and actually take it on board, because you’ve obviously been close to [investigation head] Rob Pope and his cronies,’’ Watson replied.

‘‘And at the time, you took on his line, and you were standing out there, almost the little media front with them, to create this whole thing.’’

White’s article covered the events of the night Olivia and Smart disappeared ‘‘as queried and disputed by Gerald Hope – and remembered and explained by Watson’’.

Watson was convicted of murdering Olivia and Smart in 1999 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minium non-parole period of 17 years.

He appeared before the Parole Board for a second time last Tuesday, and should know before Christmas whether he will be released from prison.