Former top cop Mark Franklin has doubts about Gail Maney's murder conviction

Friday, 29 June 2018

In part eight of the Gone Fishing podcast: A key witness comes forward with new information that could vindicate Gail Maney, and the lead detective reflects on where his investigation might have gone wrong.

The former detective who led the case against Gail Maney says he is not '100 per cent' sure police got the case against her right.

Mark Franklin, who was a detective inspector at the time of the investigation, built a case against Maney for the murder of Deane Fuller-Sandys on August 21, 1989.

He also linked the murder of Leah Stephens, who disappeared five days later, to the case.

A decade after Fuller-Sandys went missing, Maney was jailed for life for ordering a hit on Fuller-Sandys, and Stephen Stone was jailed for life for carrying out the killing.

Maney's case is covered in Gone Fishing, an eight-part podcast by Stuff and RNZ. The final episode was released on Saturday.

Franklin said the case was one of the most complex he'd ever dealt with, as there was no forensic evidence or DNA to link Maney to the killing. The case relied on a series of witness statements.

Franklin defended the charges against Maney, saying she refused to co-operate, unlike other witnesses who gave evidence against her in court.

Former police detective Mark Franklin admits in the Gone Fishing podcast that police may not have 'got it 100 per cent right' in their conviction of Gail Maney for murder.

'That was their legal right not to say anything, but I always ask myself why aren't you saying anything when these other people are saying we've got something here,' Franklin said.

In the police version of events, Fuller-Sandys had burgled Maney's home and she became so enraged she ordered a hit on him. Stone carried out the hit in her garage in Larnoch Rd, Henderson where several people took turns shooting him. His body was then put in the boot of a car and disposed of. His body has never been found.

Two people were convicted of his murder but the body of Dean Fuller-Sandys was murdered in 1989 over an alleged drug theft.

In the years before Maney and Stone were charged with Fuller-Sandys' murder, it was believed he had gone missing while fishing at Whatipu.

Franklin said the witnesses who said they were present during the killing had implicated themselves deeply in the crimes, and gave evidence despite not being assured of immunity until afterward. However, four people were granted immunity from prosecution and witness protection. If Maney had said Fuller-Sandys had broken into her home, and that she knew him, her fate may have been different, Franklin said.

'She could have come and said, 'yeah Deane was there and we had a burglary but I didn't mean for this' … And then she would have been fine,' Franklin said.

Gail Maney has maintained her innocence ever since being charged with murder in 1997.

'If she'd come out with that line and we'd put that statement in, there'd be a very good chance that she would have been in the witness box and not as an accused.'

Instead, Maney had given a statement to police in which she denied any part in an alleged murder.

Stephen Stone remains in prison for the murder of Deane Fuller-Sandys and the rape and murder of Leah Stephens.

She has maintained her innocence since her arrest in 1997. Since being sentenced to life, she has applied to several justice groups to review what she says is a miscarriage of justice.

'My story has never changed, and I don't have to go back and look at the statement I did on July 3, 1997 to see what I said back then,' said Maney.

Maney continues to maintain she didn't even know Fuller-Sandys.

Franklin disputed this and said he was pictured with Maney and her flatmates at the Larnoch Rd address where he was meant to have been murdered. But when approached with a request to view these photographs, Detective Roger Small said they did not exist.

Franklin said that if there was any other evidence that could exonerate Maney, he would like to hear about it.

'All I want to say is I did the investigation to the best of my ability, put the investigation to the Crown, there were two successful prosecutions and guilty verdicts … now there are some questions being raised by Gail and the media is taking this up.

'In my heart and mind we've done the right thing. We've done it by the book, the judicial system has played its part. But if there is some other information out there that could possibly come in, well, so be it.

'I'm not saying the police got it 100 per cent right, but we've done what we can in the circumstances.'