Source: Radio New Zealand
Sonya Rockhouse (left) and Anna Osborne outside Parliament. RNZ / Anneke Smith
Pike River families say they’re “pissed off” and “frustrated” that they’re still waiting for a decision to be made prosecuting key people they believe to be responsible for the disaster, nearly 16 years after the tragedy.
On Monday, police said they are nearing the final stages of their criminal investigation into the disaster that killed 29 men on the South Island’s West Coast mine on 19 November 2010.
Police said they’d been working with the Wellington Crown solicitor for more than 18 months and that the case was legally complex. Police said further updates are likely to be “several months away”.
In 2013, charges against Pike River Coal Ltd’s former chief executive Peter Whittall and contractor VLI Drilling Ltd were dropped in exchange for a $3.41 million payout to the victims’ families, which was later declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.
Last November, the lawyer for Pike River families, Nigel Hampton KC, told RNZ police had enough evidence to lay manslaughter charges over the disaster.
Sonya Rockhouse, whose son Ben was 21 when he was killed in the explosion, said she’s really frustrated that the timelines are again being repeatedly pushed.
“To be honest, I was pretty pissed off. The same sorts of things have happened to us all the way through, we get told that this is going to happen at this time, and we get to within a short time before that time is up, and then there’s ‘aw no, there’s gonna be a few more months’,” she said.
“It’s pretty frustrating, it’s been 15 years, and it’s been like seven or eight years since they re-entered and went in and gathered evidence and everything.”
Rockhouse said she believes that police have done everything they can to gather evidence.
She said her understanding is that Crown solicitors will be making the call on whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Rockhouse said she understands that the lawyers need to go through the evidence and that they don’t prosecute lightly, however she said she hopes the lawyers can understand how families are feeling too.
“I think we’ve been very patient, I think we’ve been extremely patient, we haven’t gotten angry, we’ve just tried to be as understanding as we can, but there comes a point when..how long do you go on for?” she said.
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the explosion, said she wants to see 29 manslaughter charges laid.
Osborne said she’s disappointed that families are still waiting for an outcome from the criminal investigation.
“There’s been absolutely nothing for the families over the deaths of their loved ones,” she said.
“And you know, it’s just disgusting that we are still waiting this long for a decision to be made.”
Anna Osborne with a photo of her husband Milton, who died in the explosion. RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Osborne said she hopes there will be prosecutions this year, but added that they’ve been let down so many times.
“It’s starting to worry me a bit, that is there going to be a prosecution? And, you know, if the decision isn’t made, the right decision isn’t made, there is going to be an uproar,” she said.
Efforts by Pike River families over the years, including Osborne and Rockhouse, to prevent the mine from being sealed in 2021 have led to police re-entering the mine to recover further material and evidence from inside the drift.
In September 2022, police announced they were reopening the borehole drilling operation as part of the investigation and 10 boreholes were drilled, imaged, and resealed. Human remains were found in the mine in 2023.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
