Crimes NZ

Case #002 - Teina Pora's Wrongful Conviction

Teina Pora was wrongly imprisoned for 20 years for the rape and murder of Susan Burdett, brutally attacked in her Papatoetoe home in March 1992. Investigative journalist Eugene Bingham joins Jesse to us through the case.On Monday 23 March, 1992, Susan Burdett was raped and beaten to death with a softball bat.What followed would become one of this country's most prominent miscarriages of justice.Teina Pora was convicted of Burdett's rape and murder in 1994, found guilty again at a retrial in 2000, but eventually the convictions were quashed by the Privy Council in 2004.In 2020, prolific rapist Malcolm Rewa was found guilty of the crime.Investigative Journalist Eugene Bingham spent four years investigating the case and describes how a man spent more than 20-years of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Case #003 - The Disappearance of Deane Fuller-Sandys

Deane Fuller-Sandys went missing on 21 August, 1989 after setting off to go fishing at the rough West Auckland beach Whatipu and for nearly a decade he was presumed drowned.Deane Fuller-Sandys went missing on 21 August,1989 after setting off to go fishing at the rough West Auckland beach Whatipu and for nearly a decade he was presumed drowned.In February 1997, police began investigating tips which led them to charge Auckland woman Gail Maney with ordering a "hit" on Fuller-Sandys.Maney has always denied any role in the murder and in the 2018 RNZ-Stuff podcast Gone Fishing, she said she had never even met Fuller-Sandys.Former police officer turned private detective Tim McKinnel believes Gail Maney is the victim of a miscarriage of justice. He talks about the campaign to uncover the evidence to have her exonerated. He believes her appeal could be bigger than Teina Pora's.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Case #004 - The Trial of David Dougherty

David Dougherty was convicted for the rape and abduction of an 11 year old girl in 1993. But he wasn't guilty of the crime. Donna Chisholm was the journalist at the centre of the campaign to free him and have him compensated.In 1993, David Dougherty was convicted of abducting and raping an 11-year-old girl in Auckland.He spent more than three years in prison before being acquitted at a retrial in 1997, following fresh DNA evidence.Journalist Donna Chisholm supported him through his retrial and during his long fight for compensation.Dougherty died of pancreatic cancer in 2017 and Chisholm told RNZ's Saturday Morning the trauma of the conviction fueled Mr Dougherty's alcoholism, which is linked to pancreatic cancer."He was damaged for the rest of his life by it, and he couldn't get through it."Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Case #006 - The Mr Asia Drug Ring

Investigative journalist and presenter David Lomas began covering the Mr Asia drug ring case when he was a crime reporter at the Dominion newspaper in Wellington in 1978. He has followed the story ever since.The Mr Asia drug ring imported large quantities of drugs into New Zealand and Australia through the 70s.The drug ring, one of the largest New Zealand has ever seen, was led by Marty Johnstone, the original Mr Asia, and grew from marijuana imports to a massive heroin operation.Johnstone was killed on the orders of drug lord Terry Clark, divers found his mutilated body in a flooded quarry in England.David Lomas, investigative journalist, has followed the story since the late 70s.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Case #001 - Olivia Hope and Ben Smart

Olivia Hope and Ben Smart disappeared in the Marlborough Sounds in the early hours of New Year's Day in 1998. Investigative journalist and author, Mike White, has covered this case through all its twists and turns over two decades.Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were last seen about 4am on January 1 1998 when they were dropped off to a yacht by a water taxi.Ben and Olivia were planning to sleep on the chartered yacht Tamarack but found all the berths were full.Three other passengers were travelling on the water-taxi, one was a single man who offered the pair a place to sleep on his yacht.Ben and Olivia head off with the man, to his yacht - this is the last time they are seen alive.Five months later, on the 15th of June, 1998, Scott Watson was arrested and charged with their murder.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details