‘They were amazing times and dark times’
Lawyer Roger Laybourn, whose career began defending those arrested during the infamous 1970s dawn raids, calls time on 44-year career
In his first job after graduating in the late 1970s, a fresh-faced Roger Laybourn got straight to work with a renowned human rights lawyer defending those arrested during one of the country’s darkest times, the Dawn Raids era.
The now 70-year-old had just returned from a year working in Samoa through Volunteer Services Abroad, zero law contacts in hand, but he was well-known among the Samoan community.
The immigration dawn raids of the mid-1970s disproportionately targeted people of Pasifika heritage who were suspected of overstaying their visas.
Lawyer George Rosenberg put Laybourn under his wing and, for the next two years, he was given a stark introduction to the practice.
“They were amazing times and dark times.
“I would be going to court with 30 clients and families,” his eyes glistening as he recalls one of the country’s most shameful passages of history.
“It was heartbreaking.
“They were so respectful and trusting of the system that was absolutely screwing them, you know.
“That had a big impact on me in the sense of justice, the power of the state, and the vulnerability of people at a very early stage in my career.”
That career stretched 44 years and came to an end last week.
Recalling those early years fighting for the arrested Pacific people during his farewell speech to friends, family, and colleagues on a Friday night in Hamilton, the emotion again hits Laybourn.
His drive to see justice done was one of the reasons he was never reluctant to head to work.
“I have never doubted my passion for my job . . . it just seems to come to me as natural as breathing oxygen.”
After two years working with Rosenberg, he and his wife, Bronwen, decided to do their OE before returning to Hamilton about 21⁄2 years later.
Laybourn has been at the centre of numerous high-profile cases but one he proffers as a standout was that of Taumarunui man Ian Crutchley who was charged with the murder of his terminally ill mother.
“Crutchley was an extraordinary
success,” Laybourn beams. “The murder charge got thrown out at depositions, by JPS [Justice of the Peace] in the Taumarunui District Court. “It was very satisfying because, let’s just say, it was a very over-confident medical witness that the Crown had, and his evidence was flawed and the Crown was absolutely stunned when they came back and said ‘We’re dismissing the charge’.”
Crutchley was instead found guilty of attempted murder but then the battle came in trying to keep him out of jail. He succeeded. “I had huge sympathy for the predicament he found himself in. There was no premeditation.
“He was there at his mother’s bedside and she was in excruciating pain, likely to die within 48 hours and he could not find any staff to assist with her pain-killing.”
He wanted her morphine medication increased but he couldn’t find any staff in her rest home. He did it himself which settled her, but saw her die a few hours later. Crutchley never denied actions but couldn’t handle mother being made to suffer.
“He admitted it, he was very frank.
“He said ‘My mother was suffering, his his I wouldn’t let an animal suffer like that and this was my mother calling out for help in pain’.
“I had real sympathy for him and a lot of respect for him because he never complained about his situation. I just wanted to give him justice, that was all.”
For some reason, Laybourn attracted his fair share of euthanasia cases over the years and they were the type he found “particularly interesting because having those almost inevitably tragic human cases tested under the criminal justice system just don’t seem a right fit”.
“Technically it’s clear if somebody kills somebody or assists them in their suicide there are laws to say they’re serious criminal offences.
“But involves
“I think that’s where you find it very hard to sort of match someone who’s charged with a homicide who’s acting out of love and compassion.”
Other key cases include getting a 14-year-old off a murder charge involving Hamilton father Norman Kingi. it almost inevitably acts of love and compassion.
The girl was with another teen, two years older than her, breaking into cars on Ranui St. Kingi and his wife walked home to find the pair in their car.
A scuffle erupted and he was stabbed once in the heart. The pair were both charged but the 16-yearold was ultimately found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for two years and 11 months. The girl was found not guilty.
Laybourn said the interesting aspect of that case was that she was probably the youngest female at the time to be charged with murder in New Zealand.
“The extraordinary thing about this though was the 16-year-old was really distraught about what happened. My client, at 14, said ‘Look, it will be all right, I’ll tell them I did it’ and when interviewed by police confessed to murder.
“It’s not usual that a lawyer can get somebody completely acquitted after they’ve confessed to murder, but to be fair it became apparent to police that she was lying because there was never any blood on her, but they still decided to charge her.”
As for the justice system, it had changed, mostly for the better, but he says it is now “bloody bureaucratic”.
“So I’m a young lawyer and going up to court and the court staff are mostly old, unenergetic white men who, I felt at the time, didn’t like me because one, I was young, and two, I was for the defence.
“So getting co-operation from the court in those early days was a challenge but the change has been remarkable.”
The court’s workload had increased but he had been impressed to see the diversity in its staff. An increase in women, and an increase in Māori and Pasifika staff had meant it wasn’t as fearsome as it once was.
He had been slowing down in the past couple of years before picking up one final case, in which he was ably assisted by lawyer Kerry Hadaway and his daughter, lawyer Rhianna Laybourn.
The trio defended Richard Coburn who was charged with the murder of his partner, Paige Tutemahurangi, in their Hamilton home last year.
Laybourn won, with the jury instead finding Coburn guilty of manslaughter.