Menzies Hallett, Warwick Nunns, and the Evidence Act:

The conviction of Menzies Hallett, the man who shot Turangi service station worker Rodney Tahu is long overdue.  It also raises serious questions about how a person who admitted committing murder so many times, to so many people, got away with it for so long.

So I looked up the Evidence Act 2006, and the Evidence Amendment Act 2011, before finally discovering the Evidence Amendment Act (No 2) (as at 29 June 2009) , and the relevant section 29, which was repealed in 2006, seven years before justice finally caught up with Menzies Hallett, 33 years after he murdered Rodney Tahu in cold blood.

TV footage of Hallett in Court shows him smirking throughout his trial, and the remarkable last minute retraction of his confession was a final utterly despicable attempt to further pervert the course of justice.

Looking at all the evidence it seems that while the changes to the Evidence Act certainly contributed to Hallett being brought to justice, but all in all, it seems that the real reason Hallett got away with it for so long is that he had friends in high places, and that he was protected by those friends, for many, many years.

This photo is particularly chilling, Hallett is on the far right and his close friend Warwick Nunns is second from the left, with his hands on the child, who looks less than thrilled about it all.  Warwick Nunns decided not to go to Police after Hallett told him that he murdered Rodney Tahu because he "didn't think it would add anything to their investigation" - really - REALLY?

This week, Warwick Nunns finally gave evidence in Court that helped to convict Hallett.  The comments of Warwick Nunns (and a perusal of the Acts) show that there was nothing stopping Police calling Nunns as a witness, or any of the other people he confessed to outside of the legally protected periods of his marriages, years ago.  Nothing whatsoever.

Nunns's comments also reveal a very chilling propensity to simply ignore his friend's confessions of murder.  a monstrous act of enablement which he was not alone in committing.  How many monsters like Menzies Hallett, Warwick Nunns, Ewen MacDonald, etc, are walking around in our communities, enjoying charmed reputations that are not deserved?  How many psychotic murderers are there lurking behind thin veneers of respectability - how many, like Michael Francis Murphy, are being aided and enabled by the NZ Police prosecution service, and others in high places?

And how many other pieces of legislation are there like the Evidence Act that are beyond their use by date? (- the Incorporated Societies Act for a start - enacted in 1908 if I remember rightly)