MP slams police and courts for brother's murder rap

By JON STOKES

Outspoken Maori MP John Tamihere has hit out at police handling of the 1989 murders of Swedish tourists Heidi Paakkonen and Sven Hoglin, which he believes led to his brother being wrongly convicted.

In his book Black and White, to be launched on Tuesday, the Associate Maori Affairs Minister also criticises a legal system he believes failed his brother David, who is serving a life sentence in Paremoremo prison for the murders.

The killings, subsequent trial, and appeals dominated the news in 1989 and the early 90s, with images of the attractive young couple and a surly- looking Tamihere playing out across newspapers and television here and overseas.

David, the sixth of 12 Tamihere children, is up for parole next month, his fourth application since his 10-year non-parole period ended in 2000.

"The decision to not have a retrial was a major injustice; he [David] deserved another trial," says John Taimihere, his parents' ninth child.

David Tamihere was convicted despite police not finding the couple's bodies. The case erupted in controversy 10 months after the trial when pig hunters found 23-year-old Mr Hoglin's remains near Whangamata, 70km from where police allege Tamihere killed the couple.

The find also conflicted with the testimony of a controversial police witness, who said Tamihere had confessed to cutting up the bodies and throwing them into the ocean.

A wrist-watch police had claimed Tamihere had given his son was still on the body.

Then a prosecution witness attempted to recant his evidence against Tamihere.

In 1992 the Appeal Court dismissed an appeal, saying there was nothing substantive in defence claims that the skeleton revealed new evidence.

John Tamihere says police techniques pitted family members against one another and blames them for souring relationships.

"They singled out family members, painting a picture [of the murder] and then asked, do you think he [David] did it? What happened was that whole incident destroyed the fabric of our family, which we are still rebuilding."

He says techniques included issuing search warrants on every family member, some more than once.

"My nephews were subjected to three search warrants, all in one day, the last one at 3 o'clock in the morning."

The police officer who led the investigation, John Hughes, declined to comment on David Tamihere's parole hearing next month.

"I may be [commenting] closer to the date, but no comment at this stage," he said.

John Tamihere says the case destroyed his proud parents.

"They were good working-class stock, they didn't want to go out shopping, or outside the house [following the accusations]. The old lady used to dry retch.

"The stress and trauma of David's trial took years off their lives. I believe it contributed directly to my mother's death."

Ruby, his mother, died in 1992, the same year John Tamihere's marriage to his first wife, Lynette, ended. "It was a tough time, I wasn't good enough to hold it [the marriage] together."

Older sister Robynne agrees.

"It had quite a bit to do with it, all the negative exposure. They [Lynette and John] were trying to make a decent name for themselves in business, the trial wrecked it. All the Tamihere name was linked with things that were bad."

She says David and John were not close, but John did all he could to fight his brother's conviction.

Although she is critical of David's criminal history, she does not believe he committed the murders, and thinks his insistence on his innocence will prevent his parole.

"He can be a low life, but not for that murder."

She said her brother was only trouble when he had been drinking or on drugs, neither of which applied at the time, as he had been living rough in the Coromandel bush for a number of years.

The Tamaki Makaurau MP says he and his brother had their "ups and downs".

He agrees David had problems with drugs and alcohol, and booze has been a demon in his own life. "We [the Tamihere siblings] have all had problems with alcohol."

When they were growing up, David was a regular supplier of "borrowed" goods.

"David was the provider of some very good items. Let's just say we knew they were borrowed without the owners' consent."

While admitting his brother has a chequered history, he is adamant he is not guilty of the murders.

"I don't think he did the murder. The justice system failed him. When new evidence came in - and we were not just talking circumstantial, we were actually talking the finding of a body found 80km from the supposed crime scene - there should have been a retrial."

He says he rarely visits his brother unless he has information that could help get a new trial.

"I may not have given him the best I could have. Going to see him is like revisiting the scene of a crime that I could have stopped."

While David Tamihere's involvement in the murders is disputed, none of the friends and family spoken to by the Weekend Herald deny that he was an obvious suspect.

He has a string of other convictions, including the manslaughter in 1972 of 23-year-old Mary Barcham.

Tamihere killed the Auckland stripper when he was 18 by hitting her on the head with an air rifle.

He also has sexual assault and assault convictions stemming from attacks on two women in their homes in the 1980s.

Tamihere was on bail when he murdered the young Swedish tourists, who disappeared while tramping on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Trampers identified Tamihere as a man seen with a woman believed to be the 21-year-old Ms Paakkonen.