Secret witness on run after no-show at court

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a secret witness in the Scott Watson murder trial after he failed to turn up for a Napier court appearance.

Watson's former cellmate, known as Secret Witness A, is on the run just days after he claimed police pressured him into lying at the trial.

He was to appear in the Napier District Court yesterday morning charged with unlawfully taking a car.

The charge followed his arrest on November 2 in Napier after allegedly being found asleep in a car that had been taken from Auckland on October 30.

He was released on bail and later contacted the Weekend Herald, saying police had pressured him into giving false evidence about Watson's confession.

Last night, Police Commissioner Rob Robinson told the television programme Face the Nation that Witness A's allegation was in the hands of a Police Complaints Authority investigation.

"[But] from the briefings that I have received and my review so far, the lengths that my staff went to to ensure there was independent legal advice available [to Witness A] at virtually every step of the way gives me a great degree of confidence," he said.

"Scott Watson had actually been arrested and charged before police were ever aware of Witness A ... [He] came forward at a later time.

"All the facts had been brought together; they had been presented before the Crown Solicitor to be placed before the courts; an arrest had been made; charges had been laid."

At the trial, Secret Witness A gave evidence that Watson had demonstrated how he had strangled Olivia Hope.

But he claimed in a taped interview with the Weekend Herald that police had altered his statement.

A police national headquarters spokesman said they had no idea where the man was, but he was able to contact them at any time, and had done so before.

Secret Witness A attempted suicide just hours after the Weekend Herald interview, but was found in time and received medical and psychiatric treatment.

The spokesman said police were well aware of the man's psychiatric history, but had no concerns about his safety at this stage.

The maximum prison term for unlawfully taking a car is seven years.

The man has said he feared returning to prison labelled a "nark."

The High Court jury last year found Watson guilty of the murders of Olivia Hope, 17, and Ben Smart, 21.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

The Blenheim friends were last seen boarding a yacht early on New Year's Day, 1998, after seeing in New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds.

Herald Online feature: The Sounds murders