Struck-off lawyer Davina Reid, who married her convicted murderer client, fails in bid for reinstatement

Davina Reid, formerly Davina Murray, and her husband, convicted murderer and rapist Liam Reid. Photo / APN

A former lawyer has failed in her bid for reinstatement after being struck off for taking cigarettes and an iPhone into prison for a convicted murderer she later married.

Davina Reid, formerly Davina Murray, was struck off the roll of High Court barristers and solicitors in 2015 following her conviction two years earlier for delivering contraband to a prisoner in contravention of the Corrections Act.

The phone, pack of cigarettes and lighter she took into prison in 2011 were for Liam James Reid, who is serving a life sentence with a 23-year non-parole period for raping and murdering Christchurch woman Emma Agnew in 2007.

Because of Reid’s actions, lawyers and their prisoner clients are now generally separated by physical barriers in prisons, and lawyers also became subject to new search requirements when going into jail, introduced in response to her offending.

Liam Reid was Davina Murray’s client at the time she offended. They later got married in a chapel at Paremoremo Prison in June 2017.

In April last year, seven years after being struck off, Reid applied for the restoration of her name to the High Court roll.

The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal turned her down in March this year.

Reid appealed its decision to the High Court, where Justice Matthew Muir has now also turned her down.

Justice Muir’s decision said Reid’s conviction was for serious offending which affected the standing of the legal profession and constituted an abuse of professional privilege.

“I agree … with the tribunal that, based on her evidence, Ms Reid’s current inability to fulsomely acknowledge her wrongdoing appears based in a continuing belief that the offending was of relatively small moment and that she has been treated disproportionately and discriminatively,” he said.

“I agree with the tribunal that Ms Reid’s persistence in this view of her offending is a barrier to genuine remorse, without which it is difficult to be confident about lasting change.”

Davina Murray when she appeared in the North Shore District Court, charged with taking an iPhone and cigarettes to Liam Reid.

Justice Muir said Reid had not satisfied him that the tribunal was wrong to conclude she had not yet fully and unambiguously acknowledged her offending, its significance and implications.

However, he held out a measure of hope for Reid, saying she had “obvious abilities” which could benefit her employers, the support agency Te Whānau o Waipareira and Waipareira Trust, as well as Māori and the legal profession in general.

“When ... she is capable of discharging the onus of showing that her past wrongdoing no longer remains relevant, she can, in my view, legitimately look forward to re-enrolment,” Justice Muir said.

Reid’s criminal conviction was for an offence that attracts a maximum penalty of three months’ imprisonment. She was sentenced to 50 hours of community work.

During the court case, she argued her conviction was covered by the Clean Slate Act, under which people can legally say they have no criminal history if they remain offence-free for seven years. Justice Muir said that did not apply in this case.

The court was told Davina Reid has an unwavering, honest and ongoing belief in Liam Reid’s innocence.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.