Scott Watson in High Court Christchurch 20 May 2015. Photo / Supplied
Scott Watson in High Court Christchurch 20 May 2015. Photo / Supplied
On the day Scott Watson’s interview was published by North and South magazine, NZME reporter Kurt Bayer looks back at the case that gripped the nation.
It was the case that gripped a nation: two bright, beautiful young revellers disappear from a New Year's Eve party at a seaside resort, last seen boarding a mystery yacht with an unknown older man.
Olivia Hope, 17, and Ben Smart, 21, were never seen again.
Six months later, in June 1998, Picton boatbuilder Scott Watson is arrested and charged with murder.
Missing couple Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. Photo / Supplied
Watson, who has been in jail ever since, has always professed his innocence.
The police investigation that led to his arrest has been criticised in numerous newspaper articles, documentaries and books, particularly Trial by Trickery by Auckland journalist Keith Hunter, a stinging attack on those who put Watson away.
Watson has pursued, and exhausted, every avenue of appeal.
The bodies of Hope and Smart have never been found.
Ben Smart, murdered on New Year's Eve 1997 after partying at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds. Photo / Supplied
In the December issue of North & South, Watson who is serving a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, speaks for the first time.
"I don't know where Ben and Olivia are," Watson tells the magazine.
"I've never met them, never seen them. They definitely never came on my boat and I definitely didn't murder them. And they've basically dumped me in jail for half my lifetime, it must be coming up, for something I haven't done. It's destroyed my family and my life."
Olivia and Ben were with 1500 people at a New Year's Eve party at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds.
In the early hours of 1998, water taxi driver Guy Wallace says he dropped the couple, and another lone male, at a yacht in the inlet.
Olivia Hope, murdered on New Year's Eve 1997 after partying at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds. Photo / Supplied
During the hunt for Olivia and Ben, police identified Watson's single-masted sloop, Blade as the scene of their murder.
The Crown told the jury in the sensational 1999 trial that Watson was the killer and was seen on his yacht in Cook Strait between 4.30pm and 4.45pm on the day Hope and Smart went missing.
"Good place to go if you had something to dump," the court was told.
However, former detective Mike Chappell, who worked on the case, would later go public with his belief that Watson was innocent and that he became the prime suspect too quickly.
Sketch of the blue ketch which was part of the original investigation into the disappearance. Photo / Supplied
A draft report of the Independent Police Conduct Authority investigating the way in which police pursued Watson, was highly critical of the way they got witnesses to identify Watson as man seen with Smart and Hope on the night they disappeared.
It also said police failed to pursue leads on the identity of the "mystery ketch" seen by witnesses around that time.
A star secret witness in the double murder trial who gave testimony that Watson confessed to the killings would later allege that police had pressured him into giving false testimony.
Detective inspector Rob Pope carries files from the Blenheim District Court at the conclusion of the Scott Watson depositions hearing. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Witness A, whose name and identifying details were suppressed, shocked the jury when he said Watson demonstrated on him the way he forced Olivia into submission and strangled her.
In 2007, Olivia's father Gerald Hope told the Herald he had growing doubts about whether Watson was guilty and would help fight to free the convicted killer if he was convinced of Watson's innocence.
"What we got was a conviction but we never got the truth. And that's the part that still really rips me up. Nothing ever was confirmed, it was all circumstantial, there was no hard evidence. And that's where my greatest doubts lie.
"I'm not saying [Scott Watson] is not guilty. What I'm saying is let's clear up the doubt."
Watson's behind-bars interview with North & South journalist Mike White published this week is the latest chapter in what is one of New Zealand's most controversial crimes.
There will be more chapters to write before this page-turner is closed.
TIMELINE
• December 31, 1997: Ben Smart, Olivia Hope, Scott Watson and 1500 others party at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds. • Early hours of January 1, 1998: Water taxi driver Guy Wallace drops Olivia, Ben and a man at a yacht in the inlet. • January 2, 1998: Olivia's father Gerald Hope reports his daughter missing. • June 15, 1998: Scott Watson is arrested and charged with murder. • September 1999: Watson is found guilty of the pair's murder by a jury at the High Court in Wellington. • November 1999: He is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. • 2000: Watson's appeal to the Court of Appeal is unsuccessful. • 2003: Privy Council declines application for leave to appeal. • May 2004: Watson marries Coral Branch in a service at Paremoremo Prison. They separate three years later. • 2008: Watson applies to the Governor-General for a royal pardon. • November 2009: Government appoints Kristy McDonald QC to re-interview key witnesses as part of Watson's application for a royal pardon. • December 2012: Watson's mother dies and he is allowed to attend the funeral in Christchurch under guard. • July 2013: The Governor-General declines Watson's application for the royal prerogative of mercy. • May 2015: High Court in Christchurch hears judicial review sought by Watson to overturn a Corrections decision to block a behind-bars meeting with North and South journalist Mike White. • June 2015: Justice Rachel Dunningham quashes Corrections' move. • August 2015: Watson granted approval to speak on the record with Mr White, subject to conditions related to security and interests of victims.
