Michael had followed his wife and boys back to New Zealand from Sydney after the marriage broke up. He said when he had his sons for the odd weekend their bottles of medication had concerned him.
This kind and caring dad was convicted of sexually abusing them and sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Innocent, he was locked up in the protection wing at Mt Eden Prison among paedophiles.
His elderly parents and a brother believed him, spending thousands on a top appeal lawyer. They buoyed him up by saying the truth would come out.
It did.
His eldest son was in the car with his mum one afternoon and asked if God knew when you had not told the truth.
"Yes," said his mum.
The boy immediately recanted and said the sexual abuse by his dad had been all lies.There had been sexual abuse but the abuser was his stepfather, he told her.
Michael Smith was released after 14 months, after he had been pardoned. He had an official apology from police. It wasn't enough.
As he said: "Too late, I've been branded." And that's it - once you have done time in the pokey, people never forget.
Some are all too ready to point the finger again and again. There's nothing like an entertaining slice of gossip, especially when it has to do with police, prison or breaking the law.
Watching Michael Smith try to put his life back on track was excruciating. He couldn't get a job and became a compulsive gambler. It had all been too hard and too harsh. He had tried to maintain his innocence despite a lying counsellor, two small, frightened boys, police determined to sort it and an ex-wife determined to see justice done.
Worst was that the stepfather, the abuser, was even in court as support for the boys.
Then the deaths of Smith's elderly parents came within months of each other. The stress had been too much. It made this a desperate tale of tragic proportions. But it was told carefully and quietly, considering the hideous facts.
