Source: Radio New Zealand
Convicted double-murderer Scott Watson is due to appear before the Parole Board again. Pool / John Kirk-Anderson
Convicted double-murderer Scott Watson is due to appear before the Parole Board again on Friday, in his latest bid to be released from prison.
Watson was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999 for murdering Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in the Marlborough Sounds after an 11-week trial involving about 500 witnesses.
Ben Smart and Olivia Hope NZ Police
The Blenheim friends, aged 21 and 17, were last seen stepping off a water taxi onto a stranger’s yacht in the early hours of 1 January 1998 after a New Year’s Eve party at Furneaux Lodge. Their bodies have never been found.
Watson, 54, had always maintained his innocence and had now spent more than 27 years behind bars.
It was now accepted that Hope and Smart died in circumstances that amounted to murder at the hands of the lone man with whom they boarded the yacht on which they were last seen.
The key issue at trial was whether that man was Watson.
Watson became eligible for parole in June 2015 but his denials had been a factor in why parole had been declined four times so far.
His fifth attempt in March last year was abandoned after the Parole Board ran out of time to hear from Watson, his family and an independent psychologist.
The Court of Appeal turned down a bid to quash Watson’s murder convictions last year.
The appeal focused on the use of photo montages shown to witnesses ahead of the original trial and the reliability of forensic testing used to show two hairs found on Watson’s boat belonged to Hope.
An almost 300-page decision released last September by Justices Christine French, Patricia Courtney and Susan Thomas found there was no miscarriage of justice in relation to the hair evidence or the identification of Watson by water taxi skipper Guy Wallace.
The court was satisfied Watson’s trial was fair and the jury’s guilty verdicts followed the crown presenting a compelling case.
It was Watson’s fourth attempt to appeal his convictions.
The first application to the Court of Appeal in 2000 was dismissed then an application to the Privy Council for special leave to appeal was declined in late 2003.
An application for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy – a special avenue for criminal cases to be reopened where a person might have been wrongly convicted – was declined in 2013.
Watson made a second application for a royal pardon in November 2017 and in 2020 the Governor-General referred the question of his convictions to the Court of Appeal to determine whether a miscarriage of justice had occurred with the hearing held in 2024.
Timeline
- 1999: Scott Watson is convicted of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope
- 2000: The Court of Appeal declines to recommend a second trial
- 2003: The Privy Council declines to hear the case, saying there are no grounds for further appeal
- 2009: Watson petitions the Governor-General for a Royal Prerogative of Mercy pardon (on the basis Ros McNeilly and Guy Wallace no longer believed they had identified the right person)
- 2013: Then-Justice Minister Judith Collins advises Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae that Watson’s application for a royal pardon should be declined on the basis of a report by Kristy McDonald QC that found there was no “fresh evidence” to consider
- 2015: Watson is denied parole for the first time
- 2017: A second application for a Royal Pardon is made (by convicted murderer Brian McDonald) centring on the reliability of evidence of the two blonde hairs found on Watson’s boat Blade. The application is declined
- 2020: Then-Justice Minister Andrew Little announces Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy has referred Watson’s case back to the Court of Appeal. He appears before the Parole Board for the third time
- 2021: A fourth attempt at parole is declined
- 2025: Watson appears before the parole board for a fifth time (after two adjournments May and November 2024) but the hearing runs out of time
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
