Murder of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope

Murder of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope
Date 1 January 1998 (1998-01-01)
Location Endeavour Inlet, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand
Convicted Scott Watson

Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were two young New Zealanders who were murdered in the early hours of the morning of New Year's Day, 1 January 1998. The two friends had been celebrating on New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds with other partygoers. They accepted an offer from a stranger to stay aboard what he said was his yacht, and all three boarded the vessel at a time estimated between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. It was the last time the pair were seen, and their remains have never been found.

Police investigations began on 2 January 1998, after Smart and Hope's parents reported them missing. In the following months, police came to believe that the unidentified man was Scott Watson (born 28 June 1971).[1]:118 Police charged Watson with murder, and after an 11-week trial he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.[2] Watson still protests his innocence; however after fruitless efforts, all avenues of appeal have failed.

Disappearance of Smart and Hope

The last confirmed sighting of Ben Smart (21) and Olivia Hope (17) was early on New Year's Day, 1 January 1998, by water-taxi driver Guy Wallace, who transported them to a moored yacht in Endeavour Inlet off Furneaux Lodge, located in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. The close friends had been celebrating New Year's Eve at the lodge with other partygoers. After leaving the party, they discovered that the boat Hope had arrived on, Tamarack, on which they intended to sleep, was overcrowded. They decided to look for alternative accommodation for the night and transferred from Tamarack to a Furneaux Lodge water taxi driven by Wallace, intending to go back ashore.[3]

Aboard the small water taxi was a man who would later become crucial to the police investigation.[4] According to Wallace and another couple who also rode in the water taxi, the man offered Ben and Olivia a place to stay aboard what he said was his vessel, which Wallace described as a two-masted ketch. The pair accepted the offer and all three boarded the boat at a time estimated between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. It was the last time the pair were seen. Police speculated that they had been murdered, but no bodies were found despite extensive searching in the months that followed. To this day, Smart and Hope remain missing.

Police investigations began on 2 January 1998, after the pair's parents reported them missing. The case was assigned the name Operation TAM (abbreviated from Tamarack) by police. In the following months, police concluded that the unidentified man was Picton resident Scott Watson, although his yacht, Blade, was a single-masted steel-hulled sloop, not a double-masted ketch.[3]

Scott Watson's background

Prior to the disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, Watson had 48 criminal convictions,[5][6] mainly from when he was a teenager, for burglary, theft, cannabis offences, two counts of possessing an offensive weapon, and one of assault when he was 16. He had been imprisoned for two short periods in 1989 and 1990. He had just one minor conviction in the eight years leading up to 1998.[7]

Murder arrest and conviction

Scott Watson was arrested for the murders on 15 June 1998, two weeks before his 27th birthday. He was convicted of the murders in May 1999 after an 11-week trial[8] and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.[9] Watson still says he is innocent, but all avenues of appeal have failed.

Appeals and controversies

The defence appealed Watson's conviction, and the case went to the Court of Appeal in April and May 2000. Three Appeal Court judges heard submissions from both the prosecution and the defence, but decided there was no new evidence to recommend a second trial.[10] They disregarded the defence's submission that the prosecution's so-called "two-trip theory"[lower-alpha 1] had appeared "out of the blue" late in the trial.[10]

Questions have been raised about the manner of the police investigation, notably by Mike Kalaugher, who in 2001 published a book which was critical of methods allegedly used by police to obtain Watson's conviction, and by Keith Hunter, in a 2003 television documentary and a 2006 book.

In November 2000, after the Court of Appeal hearing, a witness who testified at Watson's trial contacted the Weekend Herald to say his evidence given under oath was "nothing more than an act". He said he was being threatened by gang members in prison; he was coming up for parole and was put under pressure by police to testify and "I agreed on the basis that my life was getting threatened". The witness changed his story at least twice more which led Watson's lawyers to conclude he was completely unreliable.[11]

In 2003, Watson's lawyers Mike Antunovic and Greg King applied to the Privy Council, which found no grounds for further appeal.[12]

In 2009, Watson unsuccessfully applied for a Royal Pardon.[13][14]

A 2010 report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority cleared police of allegations by Keith Hunter and Watson's father Chris Watson. It found the police investigation had fallen short of best practice in areas which "had no significant bearing on the outcome of the investigation". No evidence was found that would support Hunter's other claims.[15]

In June 2015 Watson successfully challenged at court the Corrections Department's refusal to allow him to be interviewed about his case by North and South journalist Mike White.[16] On 8 and 9 November 2016, the interview went ahead as planned.[17]

Also in June 2015 the first hearing of the Parole Board took place. Watson was denied parole on the basis of two failed drug tests and an unfavourable psychological report that attested Watson "a very high risk" of committing violent acts if he was released from prison.[18][19]

He appeared again before the Parole Board on 6 December 2016. Parole was denied because departmental psychologists again said his risk of violent offending was still "very high". By law, Watson must be reconsidered for parole before 6 December 2020, but can apply for an earlier hearing if he believes there has been a significant change in his circumstances.[20]

In November 2017, a second application for a Royal Pardon was filed on Watson's behalf by an Auckland man and ex-convict, who had taken an interest in the Watson case.[21] The application concerned the reliability of the evidence relating to two blonde hairs found on a blanket on Watson's boat. It included a report by forensic scientist, Sean Doyle, which questioned whether the hairs were really Hope's, and criticised the way these hair samples were handled at the time of the original trial. The blonde hairs, believed to be Hope's, were the only physical evidence linking the couple to Watson.[22]

Other events

Watson married Coral Branch in Paremoremo Prison in 2004.[5] They separated in 2007.[23]

In 2007, Watson was found guilty by a magistrate of assaulting another inmate in Paparua Prison. In 2008, his appeal against that conviction failed.[24]

See also

List of murder convictions without a body

Further reading

  • Jayson Rhodes & Ian Wishart Ben and Olivia - What Really Happened? (Auckland: Howling At The Moon Publishing, 1999) ISBN 0-9582054-4-2
  • John Goulter Silent Evidence (Auckland: Random House, 2000) ISBN 1-86941-386-5
  • Mike Kalaugher The Marlborough Mystery (Auckland: Tandem Press, 2001) ISBN 1-877178-91-8
  • Murder on the Blade? television documentary, 2003
  • Keith Hunter Trial by Trickery: Scott Watson, the Sounds Murders and the Game of Law (Auckland: Hunter Productions, 2006) ISBN 0-473-11721-5
  • "QC rubbishes Scott Watson case claims". The Sunday Star-Times. Stuff. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  • Hubbard, Anthony (31 January 2009). "Who killed Ben and Olivia?". stuff. Fairfax NZ Ltd. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  • Ian Wishart, Elementary: The Explosive File on Scott Watson and the Disappearance of Ben and Olivia (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106469
  • Ian Wishart, Elementary 2.0: The Unreleased Police Evidence on the Scott Watson Case (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106476

Notes

  1. ↑ The theory that Watson, after being taken from Furneaux Lodge to his boat, Blade, by water-taxi at about 2 a.m., had returned to the celebrations at the lodge and was later taken by water-taxi driver Guy Wallace to Blade, together with Hope and Smart, about 4 a.m.

References

  1. ↑ Wishart, Ian. Elementary 2.0: The Unreleased Police Evidence on the Scott Watson Case. Auckland, NZ: Howling at the Moon Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9780994106476.
  2. ↑ "The Queen v Watson [2000] NZCA 46; [2003] NZAR 193 (8 May 2000)". Nzlii.org. Retrieved 2015-10-07.
  3. 1 2 "NZ Police: page 10, para. 34: "Review of Detective Inspector Pinkham's Report into the Mr C Watson Complaint Regarding Operation TAM Affidavit"" (PDF). 11 December 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  4. ↑ "The Disappearance". Crime.co.nz. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Scott Watson's wife talks of her love". One News. 27 June 2004. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "2029 Gemma Claire Against New Zealand Listener". New Zealand Press Council. May 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Mike White (December 2007). "Sounds of Disquiet". North & South (261): 46–56.
  8. ↑ "Murder, they said". The Listener (January 5–11, 2008 Vol 212 No 3530)
  9. ↑ "The Queen v Watson [2000] NZCA 46; [2003] NZAR 193 (8 May 2000)". Nzlii.org. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  10. 1 2 "The Queen v Watson". NZCA 46; [2003] NZAR 193. 8 May 2000.
  11. ↑ "Witness confesses: I lied about Scott Watson". New Zealand Herald. 8 November 2000. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "Watson case rejected by Privy Council". NZ Herald. 8 November 2003. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  13. ↑ Milne, Rebecca (15 March 2009). "Pardon plea from Watson". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Andrea Vance (10 July 2013). "No royal pardon for Scott Watson". Stuff. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "Report backs police handling of Marlborough Sounds murders". Stuff. 13 August 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  16. ↑ Martin van Beynen (4 June 2015). "Scott Watson wins bid for interview with journalist". Stuff. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  17. ↑ Oliver Lewis (7 December 2016). "Gerald Hope's behind-bars meeting with convicted murderer Scott Watson takes place after decade-long wait". The Marlborough Express. Stuff. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  18. ↑ Myles Hume (8 July 2015). "Scott Watson failed two drug tests behind bars". Stuff. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  19. ↑ Myles Hume (9 July 2015). "Convicted killer Scott Watson challenges psych reports used in parole hearing". Sunday Star Times. Stuff. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  20. ↑ "Double murderer Scott Watson denied parole". Stuff. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  21. ↑ Livingston, Tommy. "Convicted murderer behind Scott Watson appeal". stuff. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  22. ↑ 'Fresh evidence' in new appeal for convicted Sounds double-murderer Scott Watson, Stuff 26 November 2017
  23. ↑ Stephen Cook (28 October 2007). "Wife of Sounds killer to get jailhouse baby". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  24. ↑ "Scott Watson loses assault appeal". The New Zealand Herald. NZPA. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  • "Guilty of harassment - crime - national". Stuff.co.nz. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  • "Convicted double murderer Scott Watson plans fresh bid for freedom". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
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