Weekend Rewind: More of the true crime that fascinated New Zealand

Teina Pora has been the subject of more than one true crime doco. Photo / Nick Reed

NZ On Screen’s Zara Potts takes a look back at some more true crime cases that have fascinated and horrified us over the years.

Crime. It seems we can never get enough of it. No matter how much we decry it and shudder when we read about – we seem to have a fascination with all things criminal.

New Zealand is certainly no stranger to a host of bizarre crimes – everything from drugs, to fraud, to murder; and many of the high-profile cases have become controversial, with appeals for public inquiries, retrials and visits to the privy court.

Just this week, a new dramatisation of the Teina Pora case was screened, In Dark Places. It told the story of Tim McKinnel, a tireless campaigner for the release of Teina Pora who served more than 20 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

But it wasn't the first programme to explore the case.

The Confessions of Prisoner T

In 2013, Māori Television screened The Confessions of Prisoner T which examined the case against Pora, who was found guilty of the rape and murder of Auckland woman Susan Burdett. The documentary outlined the case and highlighted private investigator McKinnel's belief in Pora's innocence. This excerpt includes footage from Pora's original police interview. The Privy Council would quash his conviction in 2015.

Watch an excerpt from The Confessions of Prisoner T here:

Out of the Dark

Around the time that Teina Pora was wrongly convicted of Susan Burdett's murder, there were other high-profile crimes that were shaking South Auckland communities, in particular. In 1995, serial rapist Joseph Thompson was captured by police and sentenced to over 30 years in prison for his long-lasting and brutal rampage. This documentary from Keith Hunter examines the police investigation in-depth – and looks at how the relatively new technology of DNA matching led to his arrest.

Watch Out of the Dark here:

Until Proven Innocent

DNA also played a major part in the case of David Dougherty. In 1993, Dougherty was jailed for the rape and abduction of an 11-year-old girl. However, a campaign to prove that Dougherty had been wrongly convicted gathered momentum, and after a key piece of DNA evidence revealed that Daugherty was innocent, he was retried, acquitted of the crime and finally released. The award-winning tele-movie followed the campaign to prove his innocence.

Watch the trailer for Until Proven Innocent here:

Relative Guilt

In 1989, New Zealand was at the centre of an international crime story. The disappearance of two young Swedish tourists attracted huge media interest. Months after the pair went missing, David Tamihere was arrested and charged with their murders. Despite the guilty verdict, Tamihere continued to protest his innocence during his 20 years spent in prison. He was released on parole in 2010 and has continued to maintain he was framed for the crimes. This documentary focuses on the nightmare that the Tamihere family endured after David's arrest and imprisonment.

Watch excerpts from Relative Guilt here:

Bloodlines

Murders are popular subjects for telemovies. This 2010 telefeature focuses on the South African doctor, Colin Bouwer, who used his medical knowledge to poison and kill his wife Annette. He possibly would have gotten away with it, if not for some great detective work by a Dunedin doctor and policeman who foiled his plot.

Watch an excerpt from Bloodlines here:

Bungay on Crime

Another bizarre case that drew international headlines was that of American tourist Milton Harris who "disappeared" overboard from the Cook Strait ferry. His apparent drowning drew the attention of Lloyds bank which was facing a multi-million-dollar insurance claim. The strange case was investigated my Mike Bungay QC in his 1992 series, Bungay on Crime. In this episode, police officers recall the arrest for shoplifting that undid Harris and his elaborate insurance fraud plot.

Watch the Bungay on Crime episode here:

Should I Be Good

In the 1970s, one of our most notorious criminal cases was known simply by the sobriquet – Mr Asia. In this movie Should I Be Good, director Grahame McLean uses the drug smuggling saga as inspiration for this Wellington underbelly tale. While the movie is fiction, it draws upon elements that made the Mr Asia case such good tabloid headline fodder. Global drug syndicates, interesting and complex characters, plus some great music featuring Harry Lyon from Hello Sailor as well as Beaver and Hammond Gamble.

Watch the full-length film here: