You're trolling mate protests in 3 cities. 4 0r 5 books and many TV shows. Wake up.
Scott Watson
- Thread starter The Atheist
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You're trolling mate protests in 3 cities. 4 0r 5 books and many TV shows. Wake up.
Ampulla of Vater
Illuminator
What do you think of Wishart's newest book(s), "Elementary?" I listened to one of his talks and he is quite convincing as to why it was Watson.
Up until then, I had only really heard and understood the case against it being SW. Wishart says he has the police file. He goes back through all the original statements to the police and lays out a case against SW. I might have to buy the book.
Up until then, I had only really heard and understood the case against it being SW. Wishart says he has the police file. He goes back through all the original statements to the police and lays out a case against SW. I might have to buy the book.
There are two books both on kindle I think.
Definitely worth reading for the transcripts.
Donald Anderson is the key witness. Did he take Scott to the Blade around 3 30 am? Keith Hunter wrote a book Trial by Trickery, and nominates the wrong water taxi driver, John Mullens. Donald Anderson had already taken Mullens to his own boat, well before Hunter declares Scott to be still on shore. Fundamental contradiction that makes Hunter unreliable.
Ampulla, help solve the case.
The Atheist
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Oh, please.
Protests involving exactly how many people in total in those three cities? Dozens? Hundreds even?
Did not make a ripple.
Books? How many copies sold compared to Pat Booth & Karam's books?
Sure, Watson has supporters, but the injustice has never grabbed the public attention in the way those previous cases did. If you are deluding yourself that similar numbers support Watson, you are dreaming.
Even the absurd business of Corrections disallowing the interview made no real waves. Widely reported, but the public outrage was no higher than background noise. I'd even go as far as to say Tamihere has a higher profile in the public mind.
I have no idea why Watson lacks the popularity of others, but I'm stating facts when I'm describing his position in Average Kiwi's thoughts.
The Atheist
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Pretty well the sme as I think of all his other books:
Conspiracist drivel written by a creationist dickhead whose regard for "truth" extends to how many copies he thinks he can sell to his deluded and gullible supporters.
He's a classic stopped clock - right occasionally. Even if he has the police file - big deal. The pigs in this country couldn't get it right if the murderer left a signed note and DNA sample.
We may not have a completely corrupt police force, but we definitely have a thick as pig **** one.
Curate's egg.
Wishart is the most problematic scholar. He solves the Swedes then has Heidi on Kawau Island weeks later, blonde and catatonic.
The interviews and transcripts in the Elementary books are gold mines for rational thinkers, but the correct conclusion has me stumped.
smartcooky
Penultimate Amazing
There have been a some interesting developments in this case, concerning a man named Paul James Bennett.
Any Kiwis who follow crime reporting in New Zealand will know about this guy. He's a convicted fraudster who was deported from Australia in 2016 and immediately arrested at the airport on arrival. He is currently on trial in Christchurch for numerous charges;
http://courtnews.co.nz/2016/06/27/not-guilty-pleas-by-paul-bennett/
48 charges alleging offending all over New Zealand, from Northland to Wanaka. They allege he has dishonestly used documents, caused people to act on forged documents, and stolen various high value items. He is also charged with stealing a Cutter yacht valued at $145,000, but it is the charge of repeatedly raping a 15 year old girl having used drugs to subdue he that interested me the most, because it shows that fraud and theft are not the only strings in this man's bow.
Back in 1997 he had just returned from serving four years in a London prison for offences there. He set up Bay Aviation Ltd in Tauranga with two helicopters that he stole and shipped/smuggled out of the USA, He also set up Bay Contracting Ltd (also in Tauranga). Among other things, he conned a farmer out of a $million by selling a helicopter he did not own, took $186,000 from his parents supposedly to buy helicopter blades, refinanced earthmoving equipment and another helicopter (again, that he didn't own) through Budget Finance and Broadlands Finance for approx $800,000. He also scammed other people for helicopter parts to the amount of around $750,000. When it all started to catch up on him, he disappeared to Australia.
However, it is the part of his life before he fled to Australia (around 1999) that is of most interest followers of the Scott Watson case. Some time before the end of 1997, Bennett had managed to steal about 1.3 tonnes of "weed" from Black Power (a notorious NZ Gang). On the morning of New Years Eve 1997, Bennett motored into Erie Bay from Picton on a yacht, unloaded most of the weed he had on board picked up his cash and sailed to to Endeavour Inlet arriving at around 3pm. The yacht he was on dropped anchor 150 metres straight off the end of the Endeavour Inlet Jetty and he got a water taxi to shore. He went to the bar at Furneaux Lodge and got a drink then went and sat on an upturned dingy and sold weed for about the next 4-5 hours. Then, he went to Furneaux Lodge, bought dinner and settled in around 8:00 pm for a night's drinking at the bar drinking bourbon until the bar closed.
Does any of this sound familiar? Well it should, and especially so, when you see the boat he sailed in on.
1. The yacht is a very close match for the description of the ketch given by witnesses at Endeavour Inlet, including Guy Wallace.
2. The yacht was anchored 150m off the end of the Endeavour Inlet Jetty. The jetty is about 40m long, so that puts it very close to where Guy Wallace said he dropped of Ben, Olivia and the "scruffy man"
3. The description of the "scruffy man" is, about 174cm tall, wiry build, dark hair, weather-beaten, aged about 30-35 at the time. Paul James Bennett is 175 cm tall, and at the time was described as strong, slender build. In 1998 he turned 35 years old.
4. The time at which Bennet was in the Furneaux Lodge bar drinking, and what he was drinking, is consistent with witness descriptions. It also puts him in the bar when Scott Watson was still on the Mina Cornelia (photographed at around 8:30).
The whole case against Scott Watson required two facts to be true
1. Scott Watson and the "scruffy man" drinking at the bar are one and the same person.
2. The only ketch at Endeavour Inlet is "Alliance", and that there was no other "Mystery Ketch".
Both of these legs may well have been chopped off.
Any Kiwis who follow crime reporting in New Zealand will know about this guy. He's a convicted fraudster who was deported from Australia in 2016 and immediately arrested at the airport on arrival. He is currently on trial in Christchurch for numerous charges;
http://courtnews.co.nz/2016/06/27/not-guilty-pleas-by-paul-bennett/
48 charges alleging offending all over New Zealand, from Northland to Wanaka. They allege he has dishonestly used documents, caused people to act on forged documents, and stolen various high value items. He is also charged with stealing a Cutter yacht valued at $145,000, but it is the charge of repeatedly raping a 15 year old girl having used drugs to subdue he that interested me the most, because it shows that fraud and theft are not the only strings in this man's bow.
Back in 1997 he had just returned from serving four years in a London prison for offences there. He set up Bay Aviation Ltd in Tauranga with two helicopters that he stole and shipped/smuggled out of the USA, He also set up Bay Contracting Ltd (also in Tauranga). Among other things, he conned a farmer out of a $million by selling a helicopter he did not own, took $186,000 from his parents supposedly to buy helicopter blades, refinanced earthmoving equipment and another helicopter (again, that he didn't own) through Budget Finance and Broadlands Finance for approx $800,000. He also scammed other people for helicopter parts to the amount of around $750,000. When it all started to catch up on him, he disappeared to Australia.
However, it is the part of his life before he fled to Australia (around 1999) that is of most interest followers of the Scott Watson case. Some time before the end of 1997, Bennett had managed to steal about 1.3 tonnes of "weed" from Black Power (a notorious NZ Gang). On the morning of New Years Eve 1997, Bennett motored into Erie Bay from Picton on a yacht, unloaded most of the weed he had on board picked up his cash and sailed to to Endeavour Inlet arriving at around 3pm. The yacht he was on dropped anchor 150 metres straight off the end of the Endeavour Inlet Jetty and he got a water taxi to shore. He went to the bar at Furneaux Lodge and got a drink then went and sat on an upturned dingy and sold weed for about the next 4-5 hours. Then, he went to Furneaux Lodge, bought dinner and settled in around 8:00 pm for a night's drinking at the bar drinking bourbon until the bar closed.
Does any of this sound familiar? Well it should, and especially so, when you see the boat he sailed in on.
1. The yacht is a very close match for the description of the ketch given by witnesses at Endeavour Inlet, including Guy Wallace.
2. The yacht was anchored 150m off the end of the Endeavour Inlet Jetty. The jetty is about 40m long, so that puts it very close to where Guy Wallace said he dropped of Ben, Olivia and the "scruffy man"
3. The description of the "scruffy man" is, about 174cm tall, wiry build, dark hair, weather-beaten, aged about 30-35 at the time. Paul James Bennett is 175 cm tall, and at the time was described as strong, slender build. In 1998 he turned 35 years old.
4. The time at which Bennet was in the Furneaux Lodge bar drinking, and what he was drinking, is consistent with witness descriptions. It also puts him in the bar when Scott Watson was still on the Mina Cornelia (photographed at around 8:30).
The whole case against Scott Watson required two facts to be true
1. Scott Watson and the "scruffy man" drinking at the bar are one and the same person.
2. The only ketch at Endeavour Inlet is "Alliance", and that there was no other "Mystery Ketch".
Both of these legs may well have been chopped off.
Elagabalus
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OMG!! Good work, Cooky! Now that's a boat! I remember Ian Wishart insisting that witnesses (can't remember their names) saw only the blue and white Chinese junk. What Ian Wishart didn't tell was that the two witnesses already new the blue and white Chinese junk and the other boat (the mystery ketch) that they saw was so amazing that the took their dingy out to sail around it. It stood out that much. That looks like it!!
smartcooky
Penultimate Amazing
Well, much as I would like to take credit for this, the vast majority of the work was done by someone else. All I did was do a little research into Bennett's background and criminal history.
BTW, the "Chinese Junk" was "Alliance". While some people might call it a ketch, I think it better fits the description of a Yawl, with the mizzen mast set much closer to the stern, aft of the rudder post.
Alliance
Also, as you rightly point out, "Alliance" was well known in The Sounds, and there were witnesses who saw both "Alliance" and the mystery ketch; these witnesses were boaties, who know the difference between a Yawl, with its mainmast set amidships and it mizzen set behind the rudder post, and a ketch with it mainmast set further foreward and it mizzen set just behind the quarterdeck.
This might look much the same to the average punter, but to a yachtie, the difference sticks out like a pair of canine gonads.
I've read about Paul Bennett previously, but after that none of the other links to the Watson case are proved. There are also considerable problems with them. The position in which your sources placed the mystery ketch has been copied from the book the Marlborough Mystery by Mike Kalaugher. So fixing on Bennett's uneviable past, quoting an Eerie Bay rip off of dope for which there is no proof, using the plotted ketch position and so forth doesn't advance the case at all, neither does the photo (which however would certainly need verification before being included or discounted - though it does not fit witness descriptions.) The Eerie Bay 'patch' was found complete and the 'owner' charged. There are several possible explanations of who the mystery man in the bar might have been, however it is by no means clear that it was in fact a single man. I know you have been a supporter of the case for a long time, however there have recently been 'efforts' to solve it which rely on unreliable material and in some cases down right lies. Alliance was not a ketch but rather a scow, the legend on the boats in and around Furneaux Lodge at midnight include 4 ketches that have been identified (with the scow included in that number convienently by police). The fifth left off, over which the questions continue to burn.
Ampulla of Vater
Illuminator
.. never mind
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Elagabalus
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That kind of sums it up for me too. Shucks!
The Atheist
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You'd better get things moving fast - if that bit's right, and it's a certainty he's going back to jail - he isn't going to last long once he gets inside.
He might get Senior as a cell-mate.
Two blokes who were both there that night.
Nice crowd they get at Furneaux.
The Atheist
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Scott Watson allowed to appeal some parts of the evidence, particularly the two hairs found on his boat.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national...convictions-to-be-referred-to-court-of-appeal
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national...convictions-to-be-referred-to-court-of-appeal
Not found on his boat but in the lab weeks later.
Like the Thomas cartridge case, the Lundy shirt, New Zealand boxes well above weight in crooked police and lab work.
I think the indications are now are that the Appeal is going to be more general which is as it should be. That gives the Defence to argue that not only should the convictions be quashed but that the overall new evidence shows that no retrial should be ordered.
What heads the list after the hairs?
The Atheist
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Months even, wasn't it?
Regardless of where they were found, the idea was always nonsense, but your average Kiwi hears DNA and thinks it's a holy grail.
Except it's not.
PhantomWolf
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Even if the hairs were Olivia's, and were actually on the blanket, it still doesn't mean that she was ever on the boat.
I have told his story before and will likely do again at some stage, but I have a female friend and I have previously found her hair in my bed. The doesn't mean that she was ever in my bed, but that case could be made based on the evidence. In reality I spent time at her house and sat in chairs that she had previously sat in. Her hair had transferred to the chair when she was in it, then to my clothing when I was, and I carried it on my clothing to my bed, transferring it when I sat on it.
It is entirely plausible that Olivia likewise transferred some hairs to a chair at the Lodge and then Watson later sat in the same chair, transferring the hairs to his clothing, and from there transferred them to the blanket on the boat entirely innocently.
The case has too many holes in it, his lawyer also screwed up but not putting on a defense. The Judge made a few gaffs too. As a whole the entire thing was a sham and a shambles.
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