Eulogy hardly tactful

I have come to the conclusion the Crewe murder saga will never end and this week, over 43 years since the double homicide, it surfaced again.

The reason it was back in the news was not linked directly to the deaths of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe, shot dead at Pukekawa in June 1970, but to the death of former detective inspector Bruce Hutton who led that ill-fated police inquiry.

Hutton died aged 83 and at his funeral service was eulogised by his former brothers-in-blue, held up to be an example of a dedicated officer whose record was "above reproach".

Those provocative remarks were certain to achieve one thing - and they did.

Arthur Allan Thomas, the man convicted of killing the Crewes and who spent nearly 10 years in prison before being pardoned, broke his silence and spoke up about how a soon-to-be-released police inquiry into the long ago murders would now be a mockery.

His comments hark back to the fact Hutton and former cohort Len Johnston were found by a Royal Commission to have planted evidence against Thomas, thereby securing his conviction.

Now, without talking ill of the dead it was hardly behaviour that could sustain a claim - even at his funeral - that his time as a police officer had been exemplary and beyond reproach.

Remarks of that nature would surely have been best left unsaid, thereby letting sleeping dogs lie and Arthur Thomas would then not have commented at all.

Thomas realises there will always be those who believe he was guilty regardless of his pardon.

Likewise many people claimed from the moment of his arrest that he had nothing at all to do with the death of the Crewes, and have had no reason to re-think that.

I can only say that in the course of my work I have several times met and spoken with Arthur Thomas, have met his charming wife Jenny and - many years back - even got to nurse then baby Bridgette at their Orini home.

Arthur and Jenny Thomas were lovely hosts who had succeeded in putting the past behind them.

The police hierarchy should have heeded that, and done the same when it came to farewelling Bruce Hutton.