Police admit chain of evidence for Pike River mine 'diabolical'

Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Police have admitted their actions in dealing with crucial parts of evidence in the Pike River Mine disaster were 'diabolical'.

Some of the families voiced their concerns after reading the reports about the chain of evidence gathered by police.

The cover of an electrical cabinet was blown to the surface in one of the explosions that rocked the West Coast mine, north of Greymouth, in 2010, killing 29 men.

After it was photographed, Tony Forster, a former mines chief inspector now advising the Pike River families, told TVNZ he understood it was flown by helicopter to the Pike River office. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

**READ MORE:

* No magic, much mystery, about Pike River's disappearing cabinet cover

* Pike River families claim 'vital' evidence from mine explosion has been lost

* Pike River re-entry: Police will not be among first into mine drift**

The families released documents from the police to the media on Tuesday.

Debrief notes from a meeting on April 26, 2012, released by the police to the families, said the rescue and recovery paperwork was 'disorganised' and no-one realised this until later in the investigation.

Exhibits, such as video tapes and photographs, arrived at the investigation base with no documentation on when or where they were taken.

It called the chain of evidence for the exhibits 'diabolical'. It said there was no procedure for dealing with devices at the mine.

A number of pen drives were handed out to download information with no record as to who had what.

'Cameras disappeared that were bought solely for recording so the operation and investigation had documentation,' the report said. It said police 'did not know' where the cameras went.

'Inspectors at the mine appeared to be out of their depth. [They] became involved in what was happening in the mine rather than taking a step back and thinking what their purpose and goals were.'

The report recommended that in the future police should 'not assume' people knew what their role was.

'Staff need to be told what is expected of them, what they have to do. It does not just apply to this particular operation, it applies across the board. It would have been beneficial to have a liaison person from an investigation team appointed to the operation team, if only to give a briefing on what we needed them to do regarding exhibits and documentation,' it said.

Due to the size of the file, the early appointment of a file manager for the operation rescue and recovery, and perhaps two administration staff with their sole role being to ensure what was happening and to deal with documentation, would have prevented these issues from occurring.'

Stand With Pike, a group representing some of the families of the miners were concerned by the failures.

'This is immensely concerning given the loss of potentially crucial evidence in the form of an electrical cabinet,' a statement from Stand With Pike said.

Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the mine, said the documents showed the need to reinvestigate what happened at Pike

'We knew that the recovery of the drift would uncover evidence, but we didn't expect it would lead to this. It shows just how much we need to get into the drift to get more evidence and put it in front of a proper inquiry.'

Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton lost his life in the tragedy, agreed.

'We have said right from the start that this project was about uncovering evidence as well as our boys remains,' she said. 'It's clear that recovering the drift is the first step to recovering the truth.'