A jury will decide if what Witness C said in the 1990 trial of David Tamihere (pictured) was the truth. Photo / File
A jury will decide if what Witness C said in the 1990 trial of David Tamihere (pictured) was the truth. Photo / File
A jury is now deliberating on whether a secret jailhouse witness told the truth during one of New Zealand's most captivating and high-profile murder trials.
The identity of Witness C is suppressed, but his testimony in the 1990 trial of David Tamihere helped lead to a guilty verdict for killingSwedish tourists Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen.
However, Witness C is now accused of, and denies, perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice for what he said on the stand. He has been on trial in the Auckland High Court this week.
The jailhouse informant said Tamihere told him, in detail, while the pair were in prison together that he killed the Swedes. Tamihere has always professed his innocence.
Hoglin, 23, and Paakkonen, 21, disappeared in April 1989 after leaving their car at the end of the Tararu Stream road in the Coromandel Ranges.
Hoglin's remains were discovered by pig hunters in 1991 in bush near Whangamata, about 70km from where the murders were alleged to have taken place.
Paakkonen's remains have never been found.
A pathologist also concluded that Hoglin did not die from a blow to the head with a "lump of wood", as Witness C had testified.
"His evidence was safe and difficult to challenge, if only Mr Hoglin had not been found," Gibson said.
Swedish tourists Urban Hoglin and Heidi Paakkonen went missing in 1989. Photo / File
Conjecture about Witness C's testimony arose in 1995 when he swore an affidavit stating that he lied and gave false evidence. An interview with the late Sir Paul Holmes in 1996 confirmed the affidavit.
Then in June 2007, Witness C wrote a letter to Tamihere which read that the "trial evidence was all false and fabricated by the police anyway".
However, Witness C has since said he and his family were under threats from other prisoners to sign the affidavit, talk to Holmes, and write the letter because of his reputation as a prison "nark".
"In prison circles narks are considered lower than paedophiles," Witness C's lawyer Adam Simperingham said, recalling a statement from Tamihere, during his closing submissions.
He said Witness C signed the affidavit and recanted his evidence as a matter of survival in prison.
"He did it so he could say, 'leave me alone I'm worth more to everyone alive now than I will be dead'."
Simperingham said it was obvious his client disliked Tamihere, and urged the jury to see Tamihere for what he was.
"We know that he's a convicted murderer, he's gone through the appeals process and those convictions were upheld.
"He's a man who played games during a homicide investigation, he's a game player," he said referring to the varying stories Tamihere told police and other inmates.
Simperingham said Witness C had little to nothing to gain from giving evidence in 1990.
