Olivia Hope's father doubts 'new evidence'

The father of Olivia Hope, missing with Ben Smart since New Year's Day 1998, is sceptical about "new evidence" in the pair's disappearance.

Scott Watson is serving a minimum 17 years' jail for murdering Mr Smart and Ms Hope but on Television New Zealand's Close Up last night, Steve McClellan of Nydia Bay said he had seen Olivia on a ketch after New Year's Eve.

That supports the belief of some that police have the wrong man and should instead have looked for someone in a two-masted ketch, rather than the single-mast sloop sailed by Watson.

But Olivia's father, Gerald Hope, said he and his family had conducted a thorough search for a ketch, even when police discounted that scenario, and had found nothing.

However, Mr Hope said he was interested in any new evidence and would be interested to hear more details from Mr McClellan about the sighting.

Of the other evidence raised on Close Up last night, including comments from an unnamed school friend, Mr Hope said it was old information rehashed to sound new.

The reports were selective to support the ketch theory, he said.

It didn't in any way help answer the question of what happened and where Ben and Olivia were.

Mr Hope said if he and his wife had their time again they would not release all the personal photos and video footage they did.

He said they had since been haunted by the annual rehash of events, with television stations chasing ratings by bringing up the story again and again.

- NZPA