By NAOMI LARKIN
Warwick Bennett, the man convicted of murdering his wife and burying her body in Woodhill Forest, is taking his bid for freedom to the Privy Council.
The former Air Force sergeant is petitioning the Law Lords to overturn his 1994 conviction for killing Yvonne Bennett.
The move follows the Court
of Appeal's rejection in 1996 of Bennett's claim that an inadequate defence by trial lawyer Christopher Harder meant he was wrongly convicted of murder.
In 1993, 11 years after Mrs Bennett disappeared, Bennett led police to where he had buried her body in the West Auckland forest.
Although found guilty of murder, Bennett has maintained that he accidentally killed his wife when she bit his finger during a dispute about her leaving him.
He said he shook her head violently in an effort to get his thumb free.
Bennett's new lawyer, Kevin Ryan, QC, has lodged the petition on the grounds that Bennett was denied the right to have his defence put to the jury.
Mr Harder did not conduct the defence "in a proper, ethical, professional and adequate manner," Mr Ryan says.
Giving the Court of Appeal's decision in 1996, Justice Gault said that while the court was far from satisfied that Bennett's catalogue of complaints against Mr Harder was entirely without substance, it had not led to a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Harder said last night that he had not seen the petition and could not comment on its contents, but "every man is entitled to have his say in court."
In the petition, Mr Ryan says the evidence of one crown witness, Doreen Constance Wikaira, introduced "improper prejudice" resulting in a miscarriage of justice.
Doreen Wikaira told the court that she had been hitchhiking from Warkworth to Wellsford and was picked up by Bennett, the day after his wife disappeared.
Bennett's daughter, Vicky, allegedly told her that "Mummy's been bad."
But new evidence indicates that Bennett did not travel north on April 20, 1982, or pick up any hitchhiker, Mr Ryan says.
They travelled south.
Pre-trial publicity, arranged by police, also deprived Bennett of a fair hearing.
