Fiji murder accused had been deported from NZ

By PAUL YANDALL

The accused killer of Fiji Red Cross head John Scott and his partner, Gregory Scrivener, was deported from New Zealand three weeks before the couple were brutally murdered in Suva.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said last night that Apitia Kaisau had been removed from New Zealand on June 10 for overstaying.

"He'd been here since before the coup and ... had associations with John Scott going back to school days."

Mr Goff said the Government would monitor the murder investigation by Fijian police and the subsequent trial after "distressing" claims from Fiji that the murdered pair may have been involved in pornography, child sex and drugs.

Mr Scott and Mr Scrivener were found hacked to death on July 1 in the Suva home they shared.

Mr Scott was buried at the old Suva cemetery yesterday before 1000 mourners after a service at the National Gymnasium.

But the proceedings were marred after Fiji police suggested Mr Scott and Mr Scrivener were involved in paedophilia and drug use.

Mr Scrivener's sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Tony Alvos of Tauranga, rejected the suggestion yesterday.

They said the man the police claim confessed to the killings, 23-year-old Kaisau, was "mentally disturbed."

Mr Alvos said he had a pathologist's report that showed Mr Scrivener was tortured before being murdered, indicating there may have been more than one person involved in the killings.

The report states that "all of Scrivener's fingernails of the right hand appear to have been removed."

The pathologist concludes: "From my observations, Mr Gregory Scrivener was tortured and then executed.

Mr Alvos said: "I doubt if one person could subdue two men, torture and then execute them. We think it was a group of men."

The officer in charge of the Fiji inquiry, Superintendent Ravi Narayan, denied the torture claims. He said Mr Scrivener's fingernails had been removed for examination by the Fijian pathologist, before the family's pathologist examined the body.

"They were removed for examination in Fiji. We requested it because this is a case of homicide and we need to examine all possible evidence."

He said Mr Scrivener's family in New Zealand had hired another pathologist to examine the body, but the Fijian pathologist's report had not been completed.

The fingernails were intact when the body was first examined by police and there was nothing to indicate either victim had been tortured.

Dr Eka Buadromo, pathologist at Suva's Colonial War Memorial Hospital, would not comment on specifics of the case, but said fingernails were routinely removed for DNA testing in homicide cases.

An Auckland Hospital spokesman said it was not normal practice in New Zealand to remove fingernails.

DNA samples could easily be scraped from under the nail without removing it, he said, but procedure could be different in Fiji.



Eulogies were delivered at the funeral by Mr Scott's brother, Owen, and son Piers, who spoke of the dedication and kindness that were integral to the Red Cross chief's life.

Owen Scott said: "There are some who could not accept the way that John lived but his long relationship with Greg was about the universal things in life that we all crave: trust, intimacy, companionship, and above all, love."

Last night Mr Goff said he doubted the Fijian police had "the same standards we would expect in this country".

However, he expected the police investigation to be thorough.

"We will be observing what happens during the course of the investigation and trial," Mr Goff said.