Judges ready to wig out on anniversary
Auckland’s highest court building next week marks 150 years of criminal drama with theatrical mock trials
If the walls of the High Court at Auckland could talk, imagine the stories they could tell.
Opened in 1868, the neo-Gothic heritage building is turning 150 and during its celebrations this month members of the public will have the opportunity to hear some of those stories, and to participate in the theatre of court, in a March 10 open day.
While New Zealand’s principles of open justice mean people can observe proceedings in an open court any time, next weekend people will have a chance to see a real rarity.
Members of the judiciary will don long-phased-out white wigs and formal robes to perform a classic New Zealand “whodunnit” in a series of unscripted mock trials throughout the day.
The play is based on the 1930s double murder of Waikato couple Christobel and Samuel Lakey. Christobel’s body was discovered on their farm, face down in a lake, while Samuel’s incinerated bone fragments were later found in a garden.
Neighbour Bill Bayly was found guilty of their murders at an Auckland High Court trial, and was later hanged for their deaths at Mt Eden.
Chief High Court Justice Geoffrey Venning, along with Justices Simon Moore, Patricia Courtney and Kit Toogood will take on the roles of judges, presiding over three mock trial sessions, while Crown prosecutors Brian Dickey and Luke Radich, senior lawyer Ron Mansfield, and Queens Counsels Rachael Reed and Stuart Grieve will play defence lawyers.
Justice Rebecca Edwards was part of the team involved in the planning for the anniversary and told the Weekend Herald the celebrations were an opportunity to show the public how the wheels of justice turned.
“[The Bayly trial] . . . had all the good ingredients of a criminal mystery so we thought it would be a really good visual one,” she said.
“And . . . because it also is historic we [are] reflecting the history of the court but also representing part of the everyday business of the court”.
The public will have a chance to play the part of the defendant or take on the role of a juror and watch the Crown opening, and listen to evidence from real pathologists.
Work started on the Auckland High Court, then known as the Supreme Court, in 1865 and was completed in 1867.
Its first sitting was held in February 1868. Since then it has been modernised, extended and seen
some of the country’s most high profile cases and people within its walls.
In 1985, it held its first and only terrorism trial following the Rainbow Warrior bombing, and has held memorable murder trials including that of Antoine Dixon, Teina Pora — his charges later overturned after a miscarriage of justice was declared — serial killer Hayden Poulter, rapist and murderer Tony Robertson, and alleged Swedish backpacker killer David Tamihere who returned last year for a private prosecution against a jailhouse witness in his case.
Justice Edwards said she loved working at the High Court and hoped others would get a sense of the importance of the court’s role in society.
“A lot of people when they get jury summons . . . it’s a real inconvenience [but a lot of jurors when they take part they] really do embrace the civic duty.
“It’s the essential lifeblood of the criminal justice system so if people get a sense of that, that’s all the better,” the judge said.
The High Court at Auckland will open its doors from 10am to 4pm on March 10.