Medal lawyer's battle cry

Chris Comeskey. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Medals lawyer Chris Comeskey has mounted an all-guns-blazing attack on the judiciary after being ordered to give evidence against a man accused of breaking into the Waiouru Army Museum.

Comeskey has sworn he will stay silent, claiming lawyer-client confidentiality.

"Judges have become bureaucrats," he said. The quality of their judgments, he added, was "abysmal".

This week's ruling came on top of a Court of Appeal judgment this month, in a case which featured accusations Comeskey misled the court. He now faces a tribunal that heard complaints against lawyers.

The final episode in the medals theft saga has been playing out in the Wanganui District Court, where a 40-year-old man was charged in connection to the burglary. Another man pleaded guilty to his role in the burglary and other charges, receiving 11 years in prison.

A total of 96 medals, including nine Victoria Crosses, were stolen from the museum in December 2007. They were later returned in a deal brokered by Comeskey, involving payments from a $300,000 reward pool.

Extensive suppression orders surround the Wanganui case, including the identity of the man and all evidence.

However, Judge Paul Barber, who is hearing the case, gave the Herald on Sunday permission to report that three lawyers - including Comeskey - are required to give evidence in a preliminary depositions hearing of prosecution evidence.

Comeskey, who had previously said he would rather be locked in jail than testify, told the newspaper: "I'm not giving evidence. We're just being pursued by vigilantes in suits."

Comeskey described prosecuting lawyer Lance Rowe as "that George Bush jnr lookalike prosecutor from that little town" and indicated that there would be a bid to overturn Barber's ruling.

"There is overseas authority - it will be better analysed than Judge Barber has had the opportunity to do so in Waaanganui [sic]," he said.

"We got summonsed down to Wanganui, we were picked up by the officer in charge, we were kept in a room at Wanganui. You felt like a petty criminal.

"It was bad enough having to go to Wanganui, to then be treated like that."

Comeskey said he believed he had support from the New Zealand Law Society in challenging the order to testify.

"Judges have become bureaucrats. They're only interested in streamlining the government resource and in doing so they forget that crucial function in delivering justice."

He acknowledged judges did not appreciate criticism from lawyers.

"I just happen to think that the quality and the judgments ... have become so abysmal. I think that they've parked their commonsense out on the window ledge."

Comeskey also attacked the Court of Appeal's decisions, saying they prove that the country should not have abolished appeals to the Privy Council in London.

"Quite clearly we don't have the intellectual horse power that they do in England, we don't have geniuses. We are mediocre in that respect. Because we are mediocre, we will get mediocre judgments.

"It's just a nonsense. We have a substandard police force that couldn't find iconic NZ items, we have a substandard Court of Appeal that can't treat someone decently ... (that) can't treat a lawyer that appears in front of them decently."

Rowe had no comment on Comeskey's comments. "I'm not interested in responding to his opinion of me or judges."

Former Auckland District Law Society president Gary Gotlieb said Comeskey's harsh critique could result in sanctions by the Law Society.

"In the cold light of day he might regret those words."