Crewe murders: Booth doubts case will be reopened

Journalist Pat Booth, inset, was instrumental in getting Arthur Allan Thomas pardoned for the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe. Photos / Supplied

The journalist instrumental in getting Arthur Allan Thomas pardoned for the 1970 murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe doubts the case will be reopened by police.

Pat Booth, who as Auckland Star assistant editor broke the case open when he uncovered police had planted the rifle shellcase - the key to Mr Thomas' conviction - in the Crewes' garden, says he understands Rochelle Crewe's calls for police to have another look at the case.

"I can understand it perfectly why she wants it," Mr Booth said of Ms Crewe, who was 18 months old when her parents died. "I've always considered Rochelle to be the tragic figure in the shadows."

"I think the Government should certainly consider her request," he said. "If they did agree to her request, I think it would be useful in clearing up what has hung over the community and her head for 40-odd years."

Rochelle, the Crewes' only child, spoke out publicly for the first time in an interview with the Herald today.

"In reopening the case, I am seeking truth and justice as to what happened during the original investigation and what really happened to my parents, Jeannette and Harvey Crewe," she told the Herald.

Police commissioner Howard Broad this morning said he would consider her request to reopen the case into the murders, although Prime Minister John Key said the Government would set up an independent investigation.

However, Mr Booth thought it unlikely the police would reopen the case and expected the Government to take a "cautious approach" similar to the one taken in 1980, when the Solicitor-General opted not to prosecute the officers responsible for framing Thomas.

Thomas spent nine years in prison after being convicted in 1971 of the double murders.

Mr Booth believes it was likely a murder-suicide, with Jeanette killing herself after killing her husband.

"The thrust of my investigations was to prove Arthur Allan Thomas didn't do it," he said. "Who did do it ... wasn't the number one intent."

Mr Booth rejected the theory of Investigate magazine's Ian Wishart, whose new book Arthur Allan Thomas: The Inside Story accuses Detective Sergeant Len Johnston of being responsible for the murders.

"I can find not one piece of evidence to support [Ian] Wishart's theories," Mr Booth said.

"On the basis of my work on it, I think it very strongly likely was a murder-suicide. Nothing that has come up since has changed my view on that."