Detective on the trail of 'ratbags'

Grant Coward

Grant Coward stifles a yawn but tiredness wins out and he can't help himself. "I'm worn out," he says.

"Twenty-four days in a row. I'm knackered, completely knackered."

It's been more than three weeks since German backpacker Birgit Brauer was found brutally murdered in Coward's usually quite peaceful patch of Taranaki.

And the born-and-bred Stratford local takes that kind of thing personally. The happily married father of two has policed the area for 21 years and has been a detective in the picturesque town for 15.

"It's a beautiful place, apart from a few ratbags, and we like to keep it that way," he says.

Things have slowed down a bit since Coward and his team arrested Michael Scott Wallace last Saturday, but there's still the hard slog to get a conviction.

Usually shy, Coward, 49, was reluctantly shoved into the media spotlight with the high-profile murder of the foreign tourist.

His modest New Plymouth office overlooks the district court and a few pubs - the big glass window on any passing "ratbags". Almost on cue we hear a yell from outside. Coward jumps up and darts to the window.

"That guy drives past every day and yells 'F--k pig' to us," he explains. "Sometimes we arrest him, sometimes we let it go."

Today the man has a reprieve. Coward is too tired and too busy.

The swarthy detective laughs off comparisons media have made between himself and cleft-chinned Dirty Harry star Clint Eastwood.

"Dirty who? Nah, I don't really see many movies - haven't heard of Dirty Harry before," he says, his jaw clenched Eastwood style. But uncomfortable as it might make him feel, the resemblance is striking and although he has never shot anyone, Coward has been in a shoot-out.

It's not surprising Coward hasn't seen any Dirty Harry films - he doesn't have time to watch television and the last movie he went to was a surf documentary. And he is busy.

He's seen his fair share of homicides. The brutal hammer attack of Kenneth Pigott by two teenage girls in 2002 and last year's murder-suicide involving young mother Brenda Fielding and her two children are on his file.

He was the detective in charge after the window-smashing spree and subsequent police shooting of Waitara man Steven Wallace in 2000, something Coward can't legally talk about, with the matter still before the court.

He is deeply affected by crimes against children but doesn't let emotion get in the way of solving crime.

"The case where the mum killed her two kids was tough," he says. "It was just before Christmas and there were three dead in one room. It was a pretty awful scene."

There are cases Coward is proud of. Putting away four gang members for murder saw a drop in violent crimes and robberies in the town.

But it was Birgit Brauer's murder and the capture of alleged killer Michael Scott Wallace that put Coward in the public eye.

On day two of the Brauer investigation Coward made a "We will catch you" promise to her killer.

That one quote was plastered over every newspaper and put what felt like "the weight of New Zealand" on Coward's shoulders.

"I didn't want it to sound arrogant and I wasn't talking about me personally," Coward explains.

"I have a very experienced, talented and hard-working team and I was confident - but not overly confident - that we would catch the killer.

"When that was on every front page I felt a lot of pressure, from myself mostly."

The media attention was unwanted but crucial for Coward in making an arrest in the case.

The father of a daughter, 22, and a son, 20, was on the news for weeks and he hated it - to the point he avoided the television.

"I hated watching myself on TV and I was really uncomfortable in front of the camera but I knew we needed the public's help.

"The public were fantastic - they were part of the team."

Each night - and often twice through the day - Coward fronted the cameras, immaculately dressed in suit jacket and tie with only his Rip-curl watch and silver pinky-ring etched with waves hinting to a more relaxed man. He loves surfing and cycling - lone sports where he can think. Usually about police work.

He's proud of the work that has consumed his life for 21 years but he's even more proud of his 100 per cent hit rate on homicides.

There's only one homicide left unsolved in Taranaki since Coward started and it's one he inherited from another area. It sits behind his desk as a constant reminder and he gets it out often, to "have a crack at it".

He's not a quitter and got into the job because he loves solving crime.

Coward hasn't always been in the force. After three years at Massey University studying the dairy industry he worked in a lab and then a factory.

A dedicated Mormon, Coward respected the police and only had a few scrapes with traffic cops, "for going a bit fast on the odd occasion".

Bored by the mundane and repetitive tasks in dairy, he joined the New Plymouth police - at the same station he is in charge of today.

It's the job he loves and he says, sometimes to his detriment, he never stops being a detective.

Driving around town, Coward, forever the detective, points out the Honda radio in our Mitsubishi car.

"You know what that usually means," he says. "Probably stolen."

We drive along the street some more and he points out a man he arrested a while back for burglaries. Even those he has previously locked away now wave at him in the street.

They are pretty damn proud of Coward around Taranaki, and Coward is pretty proud of his home town as well.

The kind of guy who tries to see the good in everyone, Coward is probably secretly hoping the guy who yells the obscenity every day might one day change his view and stop in for a cuppa.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY