Wilson takes aim at Chief Justice Elias

Chief Justice Sian Elias. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Justice Bill Wilson has hit out at the Chief Justice, indicating that if he had issues with a conflict of interest then so too did she.

The first thing he had done on being appointed to the judiciary was disclose to her his business relationship with another top barrister, Alan Galbraith, QC, with whom he owned a thoroughbred business, Rich Hill Ltd.

But Chief Justice Sian Elias already knew that, he said, because she and her husband Hugh Fletcher owned horses with Wilson and Galbraith. Those horses were kept at Rich Hill.

As barristers, he and Galbraith had often appeared before her when she was a High Court judge and as Chief Justice.

Nelson lawyer Sue Grey called for a Government commission of inquiry into the "wider issues" around Wilson's relationship with Elias.