Widow's plea in wake of bridge stunt

By PATRICK GOWER

It was four words in blood-red paint atop the Auckland Harbour Bridge that opened the decade-old wounds of Peter Gen Nigro's suspicious death at sea.

"Pigs kill Peter Nigro."

Now the accusation has led his widow to call for a new inquest into his 1992 drowning off Northland because of her concerns about the police effort to rescue him.

In what was first thought to be protest action at the Pacific Islands Forum, someone clambered up the bridge in the middle of the night and turned the New Zealand flags upside down, fixing them at half mast as if to mark a death. The intruder also painted the message.

Mr Nigro's widow, Caryn, now wants answers for the six children and three grandchildren left behind when her 38-year-old husband drowned.

"Whoever did it [climbed the bridge] risked their life and freedom to give finality to Peter's death ... Other people have obviously not given up trying to find out what happened, and now neither will I."

She still lives in the home Mr Nigro built at Taupo Bay, 40km northeast of Kaitaia.

His body was found in the bay after the 4.9m wooden runabout he and mate Murray Sharpe were fishing in "broke like a biscuit" on the afternoon of October 13, 1992.

They had tied themselves to floating fuel tanks and although Mr Sharpe, a poor swimmer, made it to shore Mr Nigro - a lifetime surfer - did not.

The divisions over his death began when police did not start a night-time search using a helicopter and local volunteer boaties after Mr Sharpe raised the alarm at a farmhouse at 8.30pm.

They waited until the morning, when Mr Nigro was found dead, still tied to the fuel tank by his sweatshirt.

An inquest at the time vindicated their decision that a night search was unsafe.

But questions persist. The Herald has learned that the Commissioner of Police ordered inquiries four years ago and a secret, top-level investigation ensued.

This knowledge, the bridge message, a lack of an autopsy and the fact Mr Sharpe - the man with the most to tell - did not appear at the original inquest are reasons to be given if Mrs Nigro asks the Solicitor-General for a new inquest.

Without an autopsy, Kaitaia coroner Robin Fountain found that Mr Nigro had most likely drowned, although there was argument that he suffered from hypothermia and exposure.

Mr Fountain criticised the old plywood boat they were in and their "stupidity" in going to sea without adequate lifesaving equipment, such as an emergency locator beacon.

Mrs Nigro says a night search should have gone ahead: there was a full moon, conditions were not as bad as police made out and his estimated time of death was as late as 4am.

"Police made a personal decision not to search. They judged Peter and sent him to death."

Although never charged, Mr Nigro had a reputation as a dope grower in an area known as "Cannabis County" and had previously done jail time for drugs, which put him at odds with the local police. There have always been rumours the men were at sea that day to meet a drug shipment.

Now 55, Mr Sharpe says he was "not even offered a Disprin" by police after kicking his way 3km to shore before being washed up on rocks. He stuffed his pants with grass to help against the cold and walked several kilometres to raise the alarm.

He left for Australia days later to see a relative sick with cancer and thus missed the inquest.

Mr Sharpe said the message on the bridge had "brought back the nightmares", but unlike Mrs Nigro he wants the matter put to rest.

"Had the police actioned my alarm, I'd say there was a good chance we would have found Pete alive ... But it's too late. He's dead and there is nothing to be gained."

Mangonui's policeman at the time was Senior Constable Garry Baty. He retired after 26 years in the force, but this week said: "I am still loyal to the police and I just won't talk about it.

"Its just a big drama over nothing. ... We did what we did, and that's what we did - end of story."

Mr Baty did confirm that the controversy over the search "raised its ugly head" about two years ago, when he was interviewed by Northland police chief Viv Rickard.

The Police Commissioner ordered an inquiry at the behest of the Police Complaints Authority in 1999 that revealed no neglect of duty, but Mr Rickard would not return calls to answer questions about whether his inquiries were linked to this, or why he did not contact Mr Nigro's family.

Now police are trying to find the person who got past security and movement sensors to reach the apex of the harbour bridge, the first intrusion for many years.

Mrs Nigro said she had not been contacted by any police about the message, instead learning of it through the Herald.

"When it comes to Pete, the police are conspicuous by their absence yet again."

Bright, defiant target of the drug squad

In the early days of the Auckland drug squad, Peter Gen Nigro was like the man they couldn't hang.

The son of one of New Zealand's favourite artists, Jan Nigro, the part-Italian was one of the squad's prime targets in the late 1970s and early 80s.

But their charges wouldn't stick; Mr Nigro was acquitted three times in High Court trials.

Immediately after one of the acquittals, two detectives apparently confronted him in the court foyer and swore their undying vengeance: "We will get you by the balls, Nigro."

His lawyer at the time, Peter Williams, QC, this week remembered that "the basis of our victories was the way that police had gone over the top and broken the rules".

"Peter had the artistic temperament of his parents. He was bright, ebullient and defiant - and the police were out to nail him because of it."

To those outside the police, there was much more to Mr Nigro: he started a million-dollar carpet business.

He learned to surf while growing up on Bondi Beach in Sydney, and went on to surf some of the best spots in the world. He owned a launch and was a passionate big-game fisherman.

Mr Nigro's 83-year-old mother Jan - now in the 66th year of a career that included breaking New Zealand's nude taboo with a painting called The Sunbather - said she would always remember her son as a caring father.

The police finally caught up with Mr Nigro in the 1980s and he served a prison sentence for drugs, punctuated by a 20-day hunger strike in protest at the conditions he was kept under.

On his release, he took his family to Taupo Bay - and met his death off the coast where he had built their home.