Catherine Hutton: Open Justice reporter on the new updates in the Scott Watson trial

A new report into witness reliability in Scott Watson's second attempt before the Court of Appeal has been challenged by the Crown.

Watson was found guilty of murdering friends Ben Smart and Olivia Hope in 1999.

The pair were last seen getting off a water taxi onto a yacht in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Eve.

Open Justice reporter Catherine Hutton says the report presented as evidence by the defence today argues many witness accounts were unreliable in his trial.

Meanwhile the Crown responded, saying there were many holes in the contents of the report.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Watson is back before the courts to Clara's name.
Scott Watson has spent the last twenty five years behind
bars after being found guilty for the murders of Ben
Smart and Olivia Hope in nineteen ninety eight. Open Justice
reporter Catherine Hautton has been at the Court of Appeal
hearing and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now, hey, Catherine, hello, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm very well, thank you know. He is fighting to
clear his name on two grounds, isn't he? What are they?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yes? Two bounds. Firstly the ESI evidence, which is essentially
their heads that were found on the blanket of blade.
And secondly the photo montage. And this is how Watson
was identified or Wallace. I did the TEXTI driver Wallace
identified Watson and it's an infamous half blink photo where
his eyes are sort of half closed.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Right on the DNA stuff the hair is Are they
going to reprise the same argument, which is that there's
some sort of contamination that's happened here.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
We think so, yes, now, we haven't got to that today.
So they was about the photo montage. Tomorrow is about
the ESI evidence, which is actually the eight witnesses that
we've got left to hear from this week. Yes, they've
got a new forensic scientist report from Ann called doctor
Seawan Doyle, which says that an actual fact he cast
out on whether the heirs are actually from Olivia.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
The misidentification claims that the second part that they're arguing
that seems compelling, is it as compelling? In court?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, today the Crown Council spent most of the Stuart
Bakers spent most of the day actually basically putting holes
in their report. So it was written by two eyewitness experts,
Dr Gary Wells and doctor Adele Quiggley McBride, both of
whom spoke to the court today. And I suppose it

(01:40):
was the case of not too much. What the report
said is what it didn't say. Now, the report concluded
that Watson's identification had little or no privative value. But
what they're saying is, well it didn't that. What the
Crown is saying is well, there's significant holes in the report.
And I mean to give you one example. They said
they talked about how Olivia's sister that oh sorry, They

(02:04):
talked about how the so I've just lost my place.
They talked about how Hayden Morrison could only had only
identified the man from behind and said that he had
along hair, and yet he couldn't identify him on a montage. Well,
the Crown says, well, how could you identify someone from
a photo if you never saw them from behind, if

(02:25):
you only saw them from behind, So things like that.
I suppose they spent the day kind of arguing what
the what the report had concluded?

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Why was he not in court today?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
By the way, I don't know. He has chosen not
to appear and he is not appearing by AVL either.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Okay, Catherine's so good to talk to you. Thank you
very much for that. That's Catherine Hutton and the Open
Justice Reporter.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
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