Tiler's lawyer asks for police protection

Olinda Woodroffe

The Thai tiler at the centre of a police investigation into Labour MP Taito Phillip Field has sought protection for his son at the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa after his lawyer received a threatening phone call.

Auckland lawyer Olinda Woodroffe, who represents tiler Sunan Siriwan, said a man woke her with a call to her house in Apia at 6.30am on Sunday (Monday NZ time) and asked her where she lived and who was living with her.

She has asked Samoan police for protection for herself and Mr Siriwan and his family, who are staying with Mrs Woodroffe's relatives.

She has also asked the New Zealand High Commission to protect Mr Siriwan's New Zealand-born son Henry, aged 4, and herself.

"Henry Siriwan is a New Zealand citizen and Olinda Woodroffe is a New Zealand citizen, and ... it is the duty of the High Commissioner of New Zealand in this country to help," she said from Apia yesterday.

She said the tone of the call was "clearly not friendly".

"After the call I sat up in bed and I was frightened," she said. "I then woke my brother, who was with me, and told him to go and lock the gate.

"I did manage to go to church with my family yesterday [Sunday Samoa time], but sitting in that church I was not comfortable. I was not comfortable throughout the day."

She also believes that her telephone in Samoa is being bugged. When she rang her Auckland office yesterday, she sensed that someone else was on the line and said, "I believe our phone is bugged."

"When I said that, there was a click of the phone of someone going off."

She reported both the threatening call and the suspected phone tap yesterday to Samoa's Deputy Police Commissioner, Papalii Lio.

New Zealand police are investigating issues raised in an inquiry by Auckland QC Noel Ingram, who found that Mr Siriwan sought Mr Field's help to get immigration approval to stay in New Zealand, and then tiled Mr Field's new house in Samoa without formal payment.

Auckland builder Keith Williams, who worked with Mr Siriwan before he went to Samoa last year, rang police Asian crime squad officer Malcolm Spence at 11pm on Monday after receiving a call from Mr Siriwan and Mrs Woodroffe about the threats.

But police spokesman Jon Neilson said the threats were a matter for the Samoan police.

"If they need any assistance then they will be the agency to make that request, as they will be in a position to assess the nature and validity of the threat," he said.

The New Zealand High Commissioner in Apia, John Adank, also said the Samoan police were responsible for security in Samoa, but his first secretary Rod Tyson had agreed to see Mrs Woodroffe early today.

Mr Field did not return the Herald's calls. His Mangere electorate office said he had not been coming into the office since he was placed on leave when the police investigation began in August. List MP Dave Hereora is handling his electorate work.

His lawyer, Simativa Perese, said disagreements between Mr Field and Mrs Woodroffe dated to 1993, when Mrs Woodroffe was forced off a committee disbursing funds from a TVNZ telethon to rebuild cyclone-damaged houses in Samoa because one of the houses was built on her land.

Mrs Woodroffe said that dispute had nothing to do with the Siriwan case. She said a Thai interpreter asked her to represent Mr Siriwan after working with her on cases involving other Thai immigrants.