Retrial in Fuller-Sandys murder case

Gail Maney, who was said to have ordered the contract killing of Deane Fuller-Sandys 10 years ago, has been granted a retrial.

The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled that the trial judge had not fairly summed up her defence case in the High Court at Auckland in March.

Maney's new lawyer, Peter Kaye, who represented her at the appeal hearing in Auckland, said there were "tears of relief" when he broke the news to her in the court holding cells below. A bail application is expected to be heard next week.

Friends and relations of the 32-year-old Maney were jubilant at the decision, but the family of Deane Fuller-Sandys were sombre.

The dead man's brother, 32-year-old Wayne Fuller-Sandys, said: "We thought it was all finished - now we have to go through it all again."

The Crown's case said Maney ordered a hit on 21-year-old Mr Fuller-Sandys because she believed he had broken into her house and stolen drugs.

She was given a life sentence after the jury found her guilty of murder, along with Stephen Stone, 30, who was convicted of carrying out the execution-style contract killing in a garage in West Auckland in August 1989.

Mr Fuller-Sandys' body has never been found. For years it was believed he had been washed off the rocks while fishing at Whatipu.