Source: Radio New Zealand
David Tamihere in 2018. RNZ
David Tamihere has had his convictions quashed, 36 years after he was found guilty of murdering two Swedish backpackers in the Coromandel.
In a decision released on Tuesday, the Supreme Court has directed a retrial but says it is up to the Crown to decide whether one should be held.
The court says Tamihere’s 1990 trial was unfair because of evidence from a prison informant later convicted of perjury.
And, it says the Crown case had changed so radically since then that it has not actually been tested by a jury.
Swedish tourists Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen were killed in the Coromandel in 1989. Supplied
The decision overturns a 2024 Court of Appeal decision that found there was enough other evidence that the conviction should stand.
Tamihere was convicted of the murder of Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen in 1990 after they were last seen in Thames in 1989. He has been out of jail since 2010.
More to come…
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
