Photo: Metro Magazine
Former detectives have been left "stumbling for words" by police reports of a secret meeting in 1985 between a Department of Justice official and the key Crown witness in the murder prosecution of Ross Appelgren.
Appelgren was convicted of killing fellow inmate Darcy Te Hira inside the Mt Eden Prison kitchen on 6 January 1985. Appelgren always claimed he was not in the kitchen when Te Hira was attacked
The key witness, a convicted fraudster-turned-informant, was offered the possibility of a pardon and early release just weeks before Appelgren's trial.
The RNZ podcast Nark has today reported on police records which say the government sent a Department of Justice official to "reassure the subject he would be well looked after, after he did give his evidence and that he would not be put into a prison of any kind after the trial".
Then-Justice Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer says, "if that was said, it's a very bad thing".
Photo: Suzanne Young
Former Detective Inspector Lance Burdett, who used to lead operations for the New Zealand Police witness protection programme, says he's never heard of early release being offered to a witness before they testified.
"I'm stumbling for words.
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