Judge stops TVNZ airing confession

The High Court has blocked Television New Zealand from screening a police video of Noel Rogers confessing to killing Katherine Sheffield.

Rogers was acquitted of the 1994 murder of Ms Sheffield amid emotional scenes in the High Court at Auckland on Friday night.

Now he is battling TVNZ to stop its Sunday programme airing the video confession, which the jurors who found him not guilty never saw.

The Court of Appeal ruled in October that the police had breached Rogers' right to silence and to a lawyer in making the video.

Yesterday afternoon, Justice Helen Winkelmann granted an interim injunction against TVNZ, stopping it broadcasting the video last night.

Lawyers will head back to court on Thursday to argue the case.

Rogers is back in custody, arrested just 12 hours after his acquittal.

An apparent dispute between him and family members at a St Heliers house early on Saturday morning allegedly ended with him spitting blood at the police.

He will appear in court today charged with assaulting four police officers, breaching the peace, disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest.

Two men have now faced charges of killing Ms Sheffield, who was 23, in Mangonui.

In 1995 Rogers' uncle, Lawrence Lloyd, was convicted of her manslaughter and spent seven years in prison.

His conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal last year on the basis that police thought Rogers was the killer.

The High Court heard yesterday that police leaked the video of Rogers to the Sunday programme in July last year.

Justice Winkelmann said the video was taken when Rogers was in a vulnerable situation in police custody and the Court of Appeal had suggested police impropriety in how it was obtained.

She said the release of the tape to the media before Rogers' trial was also improper conduct by the police.

"I am concerned that the police have attempted to facilitate the release of this material to the media in circumstances which are dubious."

Rogers' lawyer, Michael Corry, said TVNZ would be in contempt of court if it aired the tape. Doing so would undermine the judicial process, in particular the jury process, and breach Rogers' right to privacy. It would be highly offensive and raise fundamental issues of Rogers' civil rights.

Given the Court of Appeal ruling it should be "as if the tape never existed".

TVNZ's lawyer, William Akel, said there was public interest in the video being broadcast and it was important for freedom of expression.

He said the Court of Appeal had tagged its decision saying the tape could not be used until the end of any trial, thereby endorsing its publication.

Justice Winkelmann said screening the video would breach Rogers' privacy and added there were no damages that could recompense him if it was aired.

Sunday presenter Cameron Bennett described the events as extraordinary. The programme had the "confession tape" which the police had broken the rules in making.

"We intend to fight for our right to broadcast it and your right to see it."