New Zealander of the Year nominee: Tim McKinnel

Tim McKinnel's efforts raised tough questions on the initial prosecution of Teina Pora. Photo / NZME

This week, we name the finalists for the Herald New Zealander of the Year. We’re profiling high-achieving Kiwis each day and announce the winner in the Weekend Herald.

Tim McKinnel
For his work as an advocate for Teina Pora Tim McKinnel is shy but also proud.

In what is likely to be the last New Zealand case the London court considers, the Privy Council decided in March that a miscarriage of justice had occurred in the case of Teina Pora. The South Auckland youth was twice convicted by New Zealand courts of the 1992 rape and murder of Susan Burdett. Unlike for David Bain and Mark Lundy, the British court recommended there be no retrial, such were the circumstances of his case.

Pora, who was 17 when he was charged, became more than a free man, he became a citizen, "Mr" Pora, the weight of the label "convicted murderer" lifted from his shoulders.

Policeman-turned-private investigator Tim McKinnel made this happen and in so doing raised important and uncomfortable questions about the investigation and prosecution of Pora.

It took the intervention of a citizen - ably and determinedly assisted by lawyers Jonathan Krebs and Ingrid Squire - nine years after Pora was convicted a second time. It took a further six years of work to clear him.

McKinnel's misgivings about the case came after witnessing as a junior detective heated debates between his seniors in the police bar.

After leaving the police, McKinnel used the same tools we all have - the Official Information Act and privacy laws - to investigate.

His young family and his business had to accommodate the long absences and the hit on income that resulted.

He made more than 50 round trips by car from his home in Hawkes Bay to Paremoremo to visit Pora, twice sued the police to release information, found police incompetence, hidden deals and new evidence.

McKinnel's work once again raises the question about whether our tightly proscribed system of appeals is adequate or whether an independent, publicly funded case review system as advocated a decade ago by former appeal court judge Sir Thomas Thorp, is a necessary additional safeguard.

Unsurprisingly, the Government says, no, the Opposition, yes.