Book on Marlborough Sounds murder 'breach of court'

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A new book on the Marlborough Sounds murder case may have to be pulled from the shelves because of alleged breaches in court suppression orders.

Auckland yachtie Mike Kalaugher's book The Marlborough Mystery contains pictures of witnesses whose faces were banned from publication during the trial, as well as a picture of men who lined up in a photographic identity parade.

Police contacted publishersTandem Press last week to tell it that they believed the photographs should not have been reproduced.

But Tandem director Bob Ross said yesterday that his legal advice was that the photographs could be published and that he was awaiting a final opinion.

Kalaugher's book concludes that there is no way Scott Watson could have killed Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.

Watson was found guilty two years ago after a marathon trial in the High Court at Wellington.

He was accused of killing the pair on board his yacht, a single-masted sloop called Blade, on New Year's Day, 1998.

Kalaugher revisits the issue of whether Olivia and Ben had in fact boarded a two-masted ketch, as claimed by key crown witness Guy Wallace.

The book includes a photograph of Watson with revellers on another boat. Police believe court orders mean everyone in the photo except Watson should have their faces hidden. There are also headshots of eight men, including Watson.

Police showed the photographs to witnesses in an attempt to identify Watson as the man who was behaving badly at a New Year's Eve party.

The family of one of the men said it was upsetting for him to be associated with the murders. He was nowhere near the Sounds at the time.

They said it was an invasion of his privacy to be publicly linked to the case in this way.

Feature: The Sounds murders