Convicted killer Scott Watson has gone to the country's highest court in what could be his last chance to have his convictions quashed.
By Demelza Leslie
Watson has spent nearly three decades in prison for the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope on New Year's Day in 1998.
His appeal at the Supreme Court in Wellington centres around on one key point – the photo identification process used in the original trial.
Watson's lawyer Nick Chisnall told the court there was imagery of Watson, naming of him in media and by police officers, and then ultimately there was a showing of a montage at a point when it was abundantly well known to everyone that Watson was the primary suspect.
The identification of Watson by the late Guy Wallace was the main plank being challenged.
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Wallace drove the water taxi that took Smart, Hope and a third man to a yacht. That was the last time the pair were seen.
The court was told that police showed Wallace a single photograph of Watson in the days after Smart and Hope's disappearance, asking if Watson was the third man. Wallace said he wasn't.
Chisnall said that photo and discussion with police was not included in the original trial, nor disclosed to the judge or defence.
"This is fundamental. It goes to identification. It means first of all that you must give the gatekeeper everything that is relevant and Justice Heron didn’t have everything. Second of all, if you're argument is that the jury was best placed and able to deal with these things, it means they need to be able to have everything that is relevant to identification and non-identification. Here that single photography wasn't placed before the jury."
"The final nail in the unfairness coffin was the fact that the police created an unfair and improper montage that predisposed Mr Wallace and others to select Mr Watson," Chisnall said.
Watson was blinking in the photograph in the montage.
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