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Scott Watson

smartcooky said:
With public interest warming up in the case, it might be a good idea to give latecomers, lurkers and people not already familiar with the "Sounds Murders" a quick recap of the story and the flaws in the prosecution's case

This article does a fair job of that....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/74123354/Explainer-the-controversial-case-of-Scott-Watson
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Public interest should warm up in Rob Pope and the execrable QC Kirsty MacDonald. Blood on hands everywhere. Ironically the Lundy case may topple first, I wonder what it will take to make New Zealanders mildly angry at these wicked hoaxes. Ewan MacDonald, you got very lucky young man.....
 
cullennz said:
Great. Another Wishart book

I can't wait

:rolleyes:
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[off topic aside]

I'm no fan of Ian Wishart, AFAIC he is a complete asshat. However, I'll give him his due on two counts...

1. He's like a pitbull, when he gets his teeth into what he thinks is a good story, he doesn't let go.

2. The Paradise Conspiracy was a damned good book. It explained the intricacies of the "Magnum Transaction"(a key part of the Winebox Inquiry) better than any other source I have found.

The Paradise Conspiracy was his best work... unfortunately, its been all downhill since then.
 
smartcooky said:
[off topic aside]

I'm no fan of Ian Wishart, AFAIC he is a complete asshat. However, I'll give him his due on two counts...

1. He's like a pitbull, when he gets his teeth into what he thinks is a good story, he doesn't let go.

2. The Paradise Conspiracy was a damned good book. It explained the intricacies of the "Magnum Transaction"(a key part of the Winebox Inquiry) better than any other source I have found.

The Paradise Conspiracy was his best work... unfortunately, its been all downhill since then.
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Gerald Hope has read most of the book. It appears Wishart has proved Watson did it. This is an interesting development because it should be the best effort available to square that circle. The downside is we will have to read it which means aiding and abetting his lifestyle.
 
Samson said:
The downside is we will have to read it which means aiding and abetting his lifestyle.
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Not if it were my own brother in jail would I give that slimy little maggot a cent.

Anyway, the Herald and media have chewed it over. Wishart proves that Watson did it, but with an accomplice and differently to how the pigs called it.

Snore...
 
"The book describes the account of Matthew Stevens, who was eight years old in 1998. His story includes a detailed description of what he believed was Watson's ketch, Blade, in Queen Charlotte Sound after Ben and Olivia's disappearance and two men aboard:"

He's basing this "accomplice" conclusion on a detailed description from a 20 year old memory of a person when he was only 8 years old. Really? Can any of you accurately describe something that you saw for a few seconds, only once, when you were 8 years old?

In the Marlborough Sounds. there are literally tens of dozens of boats of all sizes and descriptions pottering around over the Christmas/New-Year period. At the time of the supposed sighting, the Blade was painted white, the most common colour for boats and yachts..Furthermore. the Blade is a single-masted 26 foot yacht (a sloop), which is THE most common single design of yacht on the sea. I'll bet I could take you one a one day speedboat tour of the Sounds and point out a couple of dozen yachts that would match the Blade's description.
 
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I find this curious, a confession the day after the murders

After Watson was convicted, Mr Stringer said, he and his wife were at a dinner with Keating, who laid out what he claimed was a confession made by Watson on New Year's Day 1998.

"[Keating] told me that Scott Watson had told him what he did."

Mr Stringer said he was told how Watson attacked Smart and "stabbed him to death", then "stabbed her [Olivia] to death".

"He wrapped them in sails and spare chain and took them out to where they would never be found and dropped them off," he claimed.

Mr Stringer said he knew Keating well and trusted him.

Confess in haste repent at leisure??
 
Samson said:
I find this curious, a confession the day after the murders

After Watson was convicted, Mr Stringer said, he and his wife were at a dinner with Keating, who laid out what he claimed was a confession made by Watson on New Year's Day 1998.

"[Keating] told me that Scott Watson had told him what he did."

Mr Stringer said he was told how Watson attacked Smart and "stabbed him to death", then "stabbed her [Olivia] to death".

"He wrapped them in sails and spare chain and took them out to where they would never be found and dropped them off," he claimed.

Mr Stringer said he knew Keating well and trusted him.
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Seems dubious to me. If he had stabbed them both to death, there would be some trace of blood somewhere on the boat, it's difficult stuff to get rid of.
 
Ah, the old confession without corroboration trick, eh, chief?

How'd that work out last time?
 
Annella said:
Here is a more in depth look at the book. I am shaking my head here.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/76392226/at-a-glance-ian-wisharts-elementary
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Elagabalus said:
After you've done the deed, put it up on Mega. Double Whammy pay back.
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I would but bought hard copy. $38. Still learning that ebook game, but probably less than $20 that way.
An interesting project because politicians judges juries police and Gerald will all love it. If it can be simply debunked game on.
 
smartcooky said:
Whitcoulls (a NZ book retailer) have pulled Wishart's book from their shelves after they were threatened with legal action.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11581823
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Maybe I read too much into it, but surely this will encourage people to dissect the evidence. This could be a game changer like Making a Murderer. Sir Peter Jackson? What do you think about justice in your backyard?

I got my copy from Whitcoulls just before they pulled it. Already I see the debate starts on freedom of speech in our country, and suggested this could never happen in America. Amanda Knox book, true story, was banned in Great Britain from the get go. I assume it is available now.
 
I have read the book, and Wishart resolves various issues that leave the defence team some serious homework.
Indeed the ketch sighted by Ted Walsh looks like the Alliance, located where Keith Hunter places the mystery ketch, and sightings of people on board such as a blonde girl are consistent with the family involved and their movements.

Wishart has Watson returning to his boat before midnight, and putting on the jersey he was photographed at the supermarket with. This is consistent with Evidence at the bar.

The Eerie Bay evidence is effectively demolished from transcripts.

However, we are now compelled to believe he had one or two willing accomplices at short notice to get the bodies off the boat to an on land burial location.

As they say, just wow.

The interesting thing is that the police work remains a disaster, and the explanation to the people disgracefully inadequate. We go from there was no ketch in the inlet, to there was no ketch rafted to the boats that Wallace dropped them to. Why do the police not clarify this, and allow 60% of New Zealanders to be hoodwinked, if this is all so?
I provisionally withdraw criticism of the courts and QC's, but remain astounded that the police care so little about their reputation that they would not have done this work themselves.

If Watson is guilty, he will have been sustaining his claims of innocence with the support of public opinion. It will also fully explain why he refuses to meet Gerald Hope.
 
It still leaves a lot of unresolved issues.

1. Wishhart does not explain the disparity in descriptions between the scruffy, long haired "Mystery Man' with several days beard growth. and the photos of Watson taken on the Mina Cornelia at about 9.30pm. The photo clearly shows Watson with short cropped hair and clean shaven. Bar manager Roz McNeilly, who served the "mystery man" at the lodge on New Year's Eve, changed her trial evidence and signed an affidavit saying the man she served was not Watson, after seeing the above-mentioned photo of Watson.

2. Wishart does not explain the testimony of the water taxi driver that he dropped off Ben, Olivia AND the Mystery Man on a boat that had a high freeboard (the distance between the water and the deck). Blade had a very low freeboard. Even if I could accept that Guy Wallace could have mistaken Blade for a bigger boat with an additional mast and round portholes and intricate rigging and ropework (which I don't), I cannot accept that he would be mistaken about the deck height of the boat. Blade's freeboard is less than a metre. It would have been a simple matter to "step over" onto the sloop but Wallace testified that he had to help them climb up onto the deck by having them reach up a grab a the rail. That sounds like over 2M of freeboard to me.

3. The two-trip theory makes no sense. If Guy Wallace took Watson over on one trip (which the Crown accepts) the who took him over on the other trip? Who brought him back between trips? There were a few water taxi drivers operating at Endeavour Inlet that night but not so many that the police could not have identified and interviewed all of them. Why has one not come forward?

4. If the Alliance owners were the mystery ketch and they were just a family group, why did they not come forward and eliminate themselves. I haven't seen any photos of Alliance... does it match the description of the mystery ketch?


What Wishart wants us all to believe, is that Watson, on the spur of the moment and without a motive, murdered two people in colde blood the middle of the night, and then found one or two accomplices at short notice, in the early hours of the morning of New Years Day, to assist him in cleaning up the crime scene and disposing of the bodies.

Is he serious?
 
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Wishart addresses all the objections you make to be fair.

It may be best to start again with the evidence and transcripts and see where it all leads. I will be interested to see reviews and so on. The book is about US$ 8.3 on Amazon, and worth skimming, he repeats a lot of stuff.

The hair issue is really strange, and I can't help with that. Watson had short straight dark hair, not medium length (to the shoulder) wavy hair.
You can bet Keith Hunter will try to answer everything, as will others. It will be interesting, and as I say, how in hell do you get help with two dead bodies at short notice?
More questions for sure.
Thank goodness the Lundy case is straightforward.
 
After reading the initial statements and interviews there is no doubt at all Olivia and Ben boarded Blade with Watson about 3 30am on new years day. Anyone can challenge this but it is pointless.

Watson made a statement on 12th January.

I suppose I got to Erie Bay about half past 9-10 o'clock on New Year's day.
I went to see "Zappa" the caretaker <snip>
I was there for 3 days moored up at the wharf. I didn't go anywhere.

What happened to Ben and Olivia?
 
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