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The Greens are calling for the Marlborough Sounds murders case to be re-opened after the emergence of new information about a ketch seen at the time of the disappearance of victims Ben Smart and Olivia Hope.
The new evidence cast enough doubt on the conviction of Scott Watson to warrant such a step, Green Party justice spokesman Nandor Tanczos said today.
Watson, 34, is serving at least 17 years jail after being convicted of murdering Mr Smart, 21, and Ms Hope, 17, who went missing at Endeavour Inlet in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Day 1998.
The Herald on Sunday has recently run a series of articles on the decade-old case.
On Sunday November 11, the newspaper reported Olivia Hope's father still had doubts about Watson's conviction.
The paper this week revealed an Auckland couple had seen a boat fitting the description of the "mystery ketch" on which Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were last seen alive.
David and Rachel Arlidge said the boat's skipper told them he was at Furneaux Lodge in Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Eve, 1997.
Water-taxi driver Guy Wallace says he dropped Smart and Hope at a ketch the night they disappeared, but police later discounted the evidence of witnesses.
Instead they focused their attention on the single-masted sloop of Scott Watson, who was convicted for the murders and is serving a 17-year sentence.
But the Arlidges said a boat berthed beside them at Bayswater Marina in Auckland at the time of the murder investigation - and seen by hundreds of boaties around the country - matched the description of the mystery ketch.
Also matching the description, and possibly the same vessel, was the Lonebird, which spent considerable periods in Gisborne Harbour from just after New Year that year until September 2000, when it sank in Gisborne's inner harbour in mysterious circumstances.
Disposal experts brought in to lift it from the harbour floor in December 2003 discovered deliberate holes in the hull.
The vessel, built as a replica of the famous coastal trader Huia, was scuttled about 8 nautical miles off Gisborne's coast in 30m-deep water.
Witnesses to the last sighting of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope spoke of seeing them board a "distinctive classic ketch, with two masts, about 12-13m with a white and blue hull and round portholes.
The Lonebird matched this description, sparking widespread rumours that it was connected to the couple's disappearance. Police discounted any connection, as the inquiry focused on Scott Watson.
The owner of the Lonebird, "Sir" Thomas Graham Fry - he added the "Sir" to his name by deed poll - was convicted of drug smuggling for his role in bringing 500kg of cocaine into Australia in February 2000.
Fry was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 25 years, leaving him in jail until at least 2024.
In June 1998, six months after the Marlborough incident, Fry told the Gisborne Herald he had run into trouble coming back from Auckland, having to be towed into Tauranga after snapping his foremast. He spoke of earlier cooking his motor while in Auckland, which could have placed him there around the time of the Arlidge sighting.
Police have confirmed they will meet the Arlidges to take a statement.
"We were chatting with the guy, so I jokingly said to him, 'gosh the police must be interested in your boat with this hoo-ha at Furneaux Lodge'," said David Arlidge.
"And unbelievably he said to me, without any hesitation: 'I know, I was there'."
Mr Tanczos said there was " widespread public concern about the safety of Scott Watson's conviction".
"This new information adds further weight to that concern."
He said it was unfortunate that the Arlidges did not inform the police at the time of the investigation.
The Arlidges didn't call the police as they thought the case was "done and dusted".
But Mr Tanczos said the list of witnesses whose information was not taken suggested the Arlidges' information may not have made any difference anyway.
"It appears that police investigating the disappearance simply discarded evidence that did not support their view that Scott Watson had killed the pair," he said.
"Members of the public who did ring the police to report a ketch fitting the description were told that police were not pursuing that line of inquiry.
"I have spoken to people who were basically ignored by police because they were providing information that did not fit with the police theory."
The Arlidges remain adamant the ketch exists and hope that coming forward publicly will prompt other people.
"We know what we saw. I'm now utterly convinced that Scott Watson is innocent," David Arlidge said.
- Herald on Sunday / Gisborne Herald / NZPA
