KEY POINTS:
A person purporting to be a juror on the Sounds murder case is now ashamed Scott Watson was found guilty.
The comments, posted on the freescottwatson.com website, come as another yachtie says police ignored his sightings of the mystery ketch and a young woman who he now believes
was Olivia Hope.
The note from the juror on the website says: "This is the first time that I have come forward, and I think a few others on the jury would like to. But we have been told more or less to keep our mouths shut. I am not a proud New Zealander, not now.
"I served on this jury and am ashamed that he was found guilty. The jury was under a lot of pressure to find Scott guilty.
"I almost felt threatened. But I am going to do something about it. You people on here that say he is guilty... if only you knew all the facts and what went on in the trial you might not be so quick to judge. Thank you."
Watson's lawyer Greg King is preparing an appeal to the Governor-General - the last legal avenue after the Court of Appeal declined to hear the case - which he hopes to complete by the end of next year.
King said there were sensitive rules about jurors speaking to lawyers but urged any who had concerns over the Watson trial to contact the Minister of Justice.
"This is just another chink in the case against Scott Watson."
The Herald on Sunday has not been able to confirm the identity of the juror, but the comments follow that of a senior detective, who worked on the Sounds case, saying he also now believes that Watson is innocent. Former detective Mike Chappell told the Herald on Sunday that the police team took hundreds of calls about a mystery ketch - but were told not to follow them up.
And that stance is backed up by Marlborough Sounds man Steve McClellan, who says he called detectives after remembering that he had seen the mystery ketch that key witnesses remembered in the Sounds at the time Olivia Hope and Ben Smart disappeared.
"As soon as I said 'ketch', the detective said: 'We've got our man, we've got the boat, thank you very much'. Click."
McClellan, an experienced boatie and Sounds resident, saw the ketch on January 6, 1998 - five days after Smart and Hope were last seen - motoring out of Nydia Bay, not far from Furneaux Lodge.
A 40ft white ketch, portholed, with blue cloth around the cockpit approached from starboard in front of McClellan. A stocky man, with salt and pepper, ginger hair stood at the bow.
Despite an "old chugger making a heck of a racket on the water, he wouldn't look at me. He was just pissing around, picking up rope and putting it down."
A second man stood near the stern of the ketch with his back turned to McClellan. He was of wiry build, and had shiny shoulder-length black hair - a similar description to the mystery man given by witnesses.
A young woman stared at McClellan through a porthole window. Her hair was tied back and she wore glasses.
Even though the boat was identical to the police description except for the blue stripe, McClellan ignored the sighting because police said at the time they were no longer looking for a "mystery ketch".
Months later he saw home video footage of Hope playing the piano aired on television.
"Every photograph I had seen of Olivia Hope, she was dressed up like she was ready to go to town," said McClellan.
"As soon as I saw her with hair tied back, no makeup or glasses, it just clicked. I knew it was her."
McClellan rang his local constable at Havelock, who put him in touch with the Operation Tam team.
A female detective told him Scott Watson had been arrested that day.
McClellan is adamant the police should have been searching the waters around the Marlborough Sounds, rather than the land.
"Scott Watson should be in jail for a million different things but he didn't murder them. And the police don't want to know."
McClellan's sighting of the "mystery ketch" is similar to that described by the last person to see Smart and Hope alive, water-taxi driver Guy Wallace.
The ketch also matches the description from eye witnesses Hayden Morressey and Sarah Dyer, who were in the water taxi with Wallace, as well as another water-taxi driver Ted Walsh.
Walsh had seen the ketch moored off Furneaux Lodge on New Year's Eve and again two days later in Queen Charlotte Sound, a young woman with blond hair on-board looking unhappy.
Another sailing couple, David and Rachel Arlidge, told the Herald on Sunday last month they saw the mystery ketch, with a stocky skipper with sandy red hair, in Auckland a few months after the pair disappeared.
The yachtie told them he was in Furneaux Lodge on New Year's Eve.
But the police and Crown prosecutors say no such ketch exists.
Among those who have voiced growing doubts over the conviction of Watson are the father of Olivia Hope, two key police witnesses and a former detective on the investigation.
MPs Rodney Hide and Nandor Tanczos have also called for an inquiry.
However, in keeping with police policy on closed cases, Rob Pope, now a deputy commissioner, has repeatedly declined requests for interviews.
Olivia Hope's father Gerald now has serious doubts over Watson's double murder conviction.
"What we got was a conviction but we never got the truth. And that's the part that still really rips me up," Hope said last month.
"Nothing ever was confirmed, it was all circumstantial, there was no hard evidence. And that's where my greatest doubts lie.
"I'm not saying [Scott Watson] is not guilty. What I'm saying is let's clear up the doubt."
Two other key police witnesses - Wallace, and Furneaux Lodge bar manager Roz McNeilly - have also retracted their key evidence identifying Scott Watson as the "mystery man" in the bar, and believe he is innocent.
Full extent of ex-cop's involvement in Operation Tam revealed
Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope wrote a two-page letter praising a detective who worked on the Olivia Hope and Ben Smart murder inquiry - the same officer who now believes Scott watson is innocent.
Ex-cop Michael Chappell told the Herald on Sunday that the police focused on Scott Watson too early and were told to ignore hundreds of sightings of the so-called "mystery ketch".
Pope, the murder inquiry head, dismissed the claim and said Chappell - later convicted on dishonesty charges - was involved only at the beginning of the inquiry, "extremely peripheral".
Chappell, who worked on the investigation for the first six weeks after Olivia and Ben went missing in 1998, now believes Watson to be innocent.
Contrary to Pope's recent statement, his letter of commendation praises Chappell's work as the computer systems manager for Operation Tam.
"The sheer size of the investgation, coupled with the massive amount of information required for loading on to the computer network, could have created immense problems in the early stages, if not for the Detective's experienced input," Pope wrote.
"He maintained an enthusiastic approach to his duties, which even extended to making himself regularly available for advice or call-back on days off or annual leave."
The letter also stated that Chappell installed the internet and scanning facilities which were used throughout the investigation.
"Detective Chappell's expertise in the computer field was obvious and it is clear without his assistance in the early stages, considerable difficulties would have arisen."
