Crewe case still controversial after 30 years

By JOHN ANDREWS

The murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe in their Pukekawa farmhouse 30 years ago still plays on the minds of those close to the events.

Locals still raise the case with Bruce Hutton, the former detective inspector who led the investigation.

It was on the afternoon of June 22, 1970, that Jeanette's father, the late Len Demler, found the couple's lounge spattered in blood.

Their daughter Rochelle was alive, soiled and alone in her cot. Her parents were gone, believed gunned down as they ate their evening meal five days earlier. The dried blood in the lounge had drag marks through it and over the front steps.

In what is thought to be his only press interview Mr Demler told a Herald reporter on June 22: "I thought it was strange when people kept ringing them up and they were not there.

"I was outside the house when Rochelle must have heard me. She started chattering.

"I couldn't get anyone to answer the door so I went in. Rochelle was in her cot in her sunroom where she always sleeps. There were dinner dishes on the table."

No one knew for sure what had happened or why. Rochelle at 18 months could not say.

The discovery by Mr Demler, himself a suspect for a time, saw police searches of the Crewe farm, neighbouring properties and the nearby Waikato River. Months later the Crewes' weighted bodies were hauled from separate river sites near Tuakau.

The murders and the arrest, trials and imprisonment of Arthur Allan Thomas - as well as the activities of the committee of family, friends and supporters who campaigned tirelessly and, eventually, successfully for his freedom and pardon - attracted controversy. The case spawned films, television programmes, books and articles for years.

Mr Hutton believes the investigation he and colleagues conducted was thorough and proper. He retired from the police 24 years ago but is occasionally updated on possible developments.

"Certainly no new evidence that has come to light has changed my opinion of it," he said.

He still feels stung by claims that police planted evidence in the murder case and a Royal Commission of Inquiry's refusal to accept certain expert opinion on the issue.

The major finding of the commission, chaired by Australian judge Mr Justice Taylor, was that Inspector Hutton and the late Detective Len Johnston manufactured evidence against Mr Thomas by planting a shellcase at the Crewe property.

It said Mr Hutton knew that another vital shellcase exhibited was substituted and that defence lawyers were not told of certain evidence.

The Solicitor-General at the time examined the findings of the commission, and nine months later decided that no action should be taken.

"It brought home to me that the finding that cartridges had been planted was totally erroneous," Mr Hutton told the Weekend Herald.

"Judge Taylor's findings were totally governed by interference by [the Prime Minister the late Sir Robert] Muldoon during the hearing.

Mr Hutton believes the reason Sir Robert conferred privately with the judge was to ensure that the commission's findings supported the pardon and to divert attention away from the economy. "That was interference by a Prime Minister during the judicial process.

"We were convinced that Judge Taylor mistakenly believed he was dealing with Australian police, who were known to be corrupt. He likened us to them.

"I dealt with a large number of homicides while I was in the police [23 years]. Here was an allegation made against me, the late Detective Len Johnston and others. He [Johnston] was dead by then and unable to defend himself. There were no under-handed practices in any homicides and serious crimes in my time with the police."

Mr Thomas, then a neighbour of the Crewes, was convicted for the murders by two juries. Two Appeal Court hearings upheld the verdict.

In 1979, after nine years in jail, he was granted a royal pardon and more than $900,000 in compensation.

Now farming at Orini in the Waikato, Mr Thomas said: "I still have terrible dreams about it. I wake up and see where I am and I'm thankful that I have my freedom."

When Mr Demler died, aged 82, in 1992 Mr Thomas claimed that he (Demler) knew what had happened. "He never helped with the search [for the bodies]. He wouldn't do it, and I couldn't understand - he was a neighbour to the Crewe farm."

In 1993, David Yallop, whose 1978 book, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, had a strong influence on the pardoning of Mr Thomas, said he thought Mr Demler had killed the Crewes.

Mr Demler's first wife, Maisie, had bailed him out when he faced a fine for tax evasion and in return received half the Demler farm.

When Mrs Demler died her husband had expected to get the farm back, but it was left to Jeanette Crewe.