The six-part podcast series Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History tells the full story of how and why French spies bombed a Greenpeace protest ship in Auckland’s harbour 40 years ago. In episode two, hosts John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy explain how the NZ police cracked the
Telltale sign that gave French spies away – Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History
By John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy
NZ Herald·
4 mins to read
Subscribe to listen
Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber? Sign in here
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
French spies Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, from NZ police photos. Image created for the podcast Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History. Photo / Maurice Whitham
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Critics have often ridiculed the DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security) agents for deciding to bring back the campervan, only for staff to tip off the police who arrested them.
Prieur explained in her book Secret Agent* that she and Mafart knew returning the van was risky, but so was making a run for it.
The spies had to leave on a commercial flight. Their fake Swiss passports would not survive much scrutiny and there would be an international police alert out for the bombers. Ditching the van could arouse suspicion.
Better, they decided, to stick to their cover story and carry on as if nothing had happened.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Unfortunately for Prieur and Mafart, police had asked Newmans staff across the country to tell them if the Turenges turned up and 20-year-old clerk Becky Hayter asked them to wait while she checked some missing paperwork.
“We understood the trap is closing,” wrote Prieur. “But what to do? We can’t just run away into the street. To go where? I keep repeating to myself, they have nothing against us.”
But it was precisely at this point, according to former detective Chris Martin, who was one of the officers on the scene at Newmans, that the so-called newlyweds gave themselves away.
“Despite the claim that they were a married couple, they exhibited none of the signs that a proper couple would have when confronted by a foreign police force,” he told the podcast.
“Suddenly, these big policemen are grabbing you, when you’re just returning your camper van – and they displayed no signal of support or anything.
“In fact, when we put them back together after some hours of being apart and being interviewed, there was no hugs, or are you okay, or any of what … you would have expected had they been a proper couple.”
Inspector Alan Galbraith, who led the investigation, said the same thing happened when they put the agents up in a motel, which had been bugged by the SIS.
Prieur and Mafart knew the motel would be bugged so they kept quiet inside and talked only out on the balcony – which just confirmed police suspicions.
“I mean if that sort of thing happens to an innocent couple, they wouldn’t be able to stop talking about it all night,” said Galbraith.
“So the fact they consciously didn’t say anything, was in itself, interesting.”
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Despite their suspicions, police were struggling to gather any evidence against the pair, who refused to talk. Until Mafart cracked, completely unexpectedly, in front of a young officer, Nick Hall, who remembers his words to this day.
* Written with Jean Marie Pontaut, © Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1995
Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History is a six-episode true crime series. Follow the series on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released on Thursdays.
The series is hosted and produced by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy of Bird of Paradise Productions in co-production with the New Zealand Herald.
Rainbow Warrior: A Forgotten History is supported by New Zealand on Air.