Kahui case was a disaster

"This is not a time to celebrate because the blood of two babies still cries from the grave for justice." -Kahui family spokesman, 22 May 2008

Not that this will worry too many of the Kahui/King clan for too long.

Because it was their collective and deliberate obfuscation and obstruction plus the worst police investigation in a decade that ensured that the blood of innocents will go unavenged for all eternity.

The twins were born into a dysfunctional Maori family, to a mother who didn't care and to a father who couldn't care less. The only reason that Chris Kahui's name is not as black as Macsyna King's this morning is because he did not have to take the witness stand.

But he was doubly lucky. First, he was the defendant. Second, he had Detective Inspector John Tims and his Manukau murder team handling the case. Fate was beyond kind: it was perverse.

Indeed it has been a shocker week for the police and very much worse than having former cops found not guilty of rape or the commissioner found out at a booze checkpoint or zealously raiding a few tough-talking, Tuhoe twits.

Detection, prosecution and conviction are the bread and butter of the police job. The successful apprehension of the big criminals for the big crimes murder, rape and child molestation.

We already know that the police give low priority to anti-social offences. That most burglaries and car conversions go unpunished. That they manage rather than police the gangs. And that, according to the police minister, they are finding the P trade tough going.

But we contented ourselves with the knowledge that they get the big stuff right. Yeah, they rorted the Arthur Allan Thomas case but that was decades ago, man.

Now? Now, I'd be willing to bet that just about every major crim indicted with a major crime is going to be chancing his odds. Get the legal aid barrister, deny everything and play your odds with the jury. Forget the plea bargain: it's suddenly become worth it.

There was already the Peter Ellis case. Then the Scott Watson conviction that still has an assistant police commissioner under investigation. The David Bain conviction overturned by the Privy Council. But you could excuse those. They were difficult cases. Besides, the cops got convictions in all three.

But not this week. This week changed all the odds.

George Gwaze walked free from the High Court at Christchurch after being found not guilty of the murder of his 10-year-old niece Charlene Makaza. An Auckland jury took just 10 minutes to pronounce the police case against Chris Kahui as crap.

And, boy, do crims catch on quick. The Wanganui-based Mongrel Mobsters who pleaded guilty to the murder of two-year-old toddler Jhia Te Tua as part of some pathetic and perverse ethnic gang conflict want to vacate their guilty pleas and take their chances with a Wellington jury. On the basis of this week, the jury will probably blow them kisses.

And yet, and yet. And yet the Hamilton police had a great result. They secured the conviction of a 49-year-old solid citizen, Ian Crutchley, who euthanised his dying mother. The terminally ill woman was writhing in agony from the last ravages of stomach cancer and begging for release. Crutchley's crime was to do what medical professionals do every day administer sufficient morphine to mercy kill whilst maintaining the sophistry that it is to relieve pain.

Even in this case, the jury suggested leniency as the only just conclusion. No man, they said, should ever be placed in such an intolerable position. I agree: being charged and convicted for compassion was simply stupid.

That said, you might argue that the police were simply doing their job. Although the Gwaze and Kahui cases suggest that it was not much a job. In the Gwaze case, the jury at least went through the rudiments of a discussion before reaching their verdict. But in the Kahui case, there was only time to swap phone numbers before heading home.

And the Kahui investigation was botched from day one. The day that the police decided political correctness had precedence over correct procedure. That the babies were Maori may actually have militated against identifying their murderer.

For Tims to now declare that they arrested the right person and the jury just got it wrong, does not wash. The entire country knew, long ahead of the trial, that Macsyna King was a suspect. She deserved to be and not simply because of the absence of any maternal remorse. That her sister was her alibi and found out at the trial was just so predictable.

In addition, the Kahui twins were seriously abused weeks before the final blows. It defies credulity to suggest that their primary caregiver would not have been aware.

Indeed, most of New Zealand naturally assumed that both mother and father would end up in the dock. Their joint activities, during and after the injuries to their children, were callous, calculated and cold-hearted.

Instead Tims and his team took a gamble. Get one of the family to turn and inform on the others in this case, King on Kahui. It was a strategy doomed from the start. King had no credibility. And the weird part is that almost everyone in New Zealand appreciated that fact even before the trial.

On the day after the arrest was made and it had become clear that King was going to be the key Crown witness I opened the lines of my talkback show on the topic. For three hours, callers came to the same conclusion as the 10-minute jury. The wrong person was in the dock either that or that wrong person should be standing in the dock with her partner. Female callers were especially harsh.

The reaction of Tims was also interesting. Hours after Thursday's verdicts, the police held a press conference saying that the investigation was over. It was complete. No, it is not. A new investigation is now required. Chris junior and Cru don't deserve justice they require it.

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