Widow applauds jail term

WHANGAREI - Jewel thief Keith McEwen deserves every day he spends in jail, says the Bay of Islands woman he stole from.

Rosemary Tarlton, widow of undersea adventurer Kelly Tarlton, said the eight months since the theft of the irreplaceable booty from the Tui ship museum at Waitangi had been agony.

Overseas visitors still came to the museum hoping to see the historic treasures.

"I have to explain what happened and I have to relive the whole saga, and I have been doing this for eight months," she said. "It has caused me a lot of grief."

Keith Anthony McEwen, aged 23, was sentenced on Friday to 8 1/2 years' prison for the April 8 burglary by Judge Arthur Tompkins in the Whangarei District Court.

Mrs Tarlton suspected that her late husband, who spent 25 years hunting for and salvaging the treasure, would have liked to "keelhaul" McEwen - an old seafarer's punishment.

"I still believe people's spirits are there. I think [McEwen] will spend the rest of his life haunted."

Mrs Tarlton was disappointed that McEwen, who was a chef in the museum's cafe, refused to help get the booty back.

"I do hope that it will return. It has been nearly as hard to recover as it was for Kelly to recover the jewellery and the coins."

She praised the police effort in investigating the theft, but denounced an insurance company for not paying out her claim.

During sentencing submissions, the court was told that McEwen would not help to recover the goods because it was "worth more than his life" to do so.

The stolen haul, worth about $310,000, included gold sovereigns from the Elingamite, wrecked off the Three Kings Islands in 1902, and part of the Rothschild collection from the Tasmania, which sank near Gisborne in 1897.

McEwen was working in the kitchen on the night of the theft. He left only fingerprints in the display case and footprints in the mudflats around the Tui.

Defence counsel Doug Blaikie told the court that McEwen might have been stealing to order after being subjected to stand-over tactics and debt-recovery demands from an earlier stint in prison.

Mr Blaikie said McEwen had gained nothing from the theft, and had turned to other crime to sustain himself while on the run.

Judge Tompkins said the stolen goods were of national and international importance and it was significant that McEwen had refused to help recover any of the items.

That he had refused to meet Mrs Tarlton or apologise was also an aggravating factor.

Judge Tompkins noted McEwen would have received a lesser term if he had shown remorse and helped retrieve the stolen treasure.

- NZPA