Field jurors told put personal and political judgements aside

Taito Phillip Field. Photo / Greg Bowker

Jurors have been warned against making personal or political judgements as they consider whether former MP Taito Phillip Field is guilty of 35 criminal charges.

Justice Rodney Hansen said the 10 jurors needed to be dispassionate and put any political views they had about the former Mangere MP to one side when they consider their verdicts.

Justice Hansen made his comments at the High Court in Auckland while summing up the case to the jurors, the last official part of the trial before the jurors retire to consider their verdicts.

He is expected to finish his address tomorrow morning, 14 weeks after the trial began.

Field faces 12 charges of bribery and corruption as an MP, after allegedly having Thai nationals carry out work on his properties in New Zealand and Samoa in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.

He also faces 23 charges of wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice, alleging he made false statements to an inquiry carried out by Noel Ingram QC, had false documents procured and encouraged others to make false statements to the Ingram inquiry and to police.

Justice Hansen thanked jurors for their efforts during the trial, likening their efforts to a long river journey which had now descended into its most tumultuous part.

He said political views had no place when deciding the fate of Field, a Labour MP from 1993 to 2007 and an independent for a further year, nor their personal standards of conduct.

"This is not about whether you approve or disapprove of what has happened. It's about whether the criminal law has been breached and it's your job to act dispassionately and impartially and to disregard any considerations which might interfere with that approach."

Justice Hansen said that to find Field guilty of the bribery and corruption charges they needed to decide if he accepted work on his properties from the Thai tradesmen without payment or at an undervalued rate.

They also needed to decide that the work was done to reward Field for immigration work done on their behalf or to influence future immigration help, and that Field accepted the work while knowing or believing that it was done for this purpose.

The prosecution has argued Field was aware of the improprieties of accepting gifts and took advantage of the gratitude of the Thai tradesmen.

Field's lawyers say he expected to be billed and did not appreciate the tradesmen were not charging, or that they reason was as a bribe.

Though a law has come into force allowing jurors to reach a decision even if there is one dissenter, Justice Hansen said a unanimous verdict was required in this trial as it started before the new law came into force.

"This may be last occasion under our law where a unanimous verdict is required," he said.

Justice Hansen is expected to finish his address tomorrow morning, after which the jury will retire.

- NZPA