Scott Watson’s convictions for Marlborough Sounds murders argued in court

Monday, 10 June 2024

Lawyer Kerry Cook presents his opening arguments at the Court of Appeal on Monday.

The Post senior writer Mike White has been covering the Scott Watson case since day one. Check back after 5pm to read his report on the first day of the appeal.

One of the country’s most controversial murder cases heads back to court today , with Scott Watson appealing his convictions for murdering Olivia Hope and Ben Smart.

Hope, 17, and Smart, 21, disappeared after a New Year’s party at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds on January 1, 1998. Their bodies have never been found.

Scott Watson, who was convicted in 1999 of murdering Marlborough friends Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, despite their bodies never being found.

Watson was arrested six months later, and found guilty of the murders the following year, despite always insisting he is innocent.

He has remained in prison for 26 years, even while key witnesses have recanted their testimonies and other evidence undermining his convictions has come to light.

Watson’s appeal in 2000, and two other applications for his case to be reconsidered, were unsuccessful.

In 2017, another application was made to the governor-general for a review of his convictions.

After an inquiry by retired High Court judge Sir Graham Panckhurst, Watson’s case was referred back to the Court of Appeal in 2020.

The initial grounds were concerns over the forensic testing of two hairs, which police said were found on Watson’s yacht, and were later linked to Hope through DNA.

However, this week’s appeal will also consider whether the evidence of key eyewitness Guy Wallace was reliable, and should have been heard by the jury at Watson’s trial.

Scott Watson's father, Chris Watson, said outside the Court of Appeal on Monday morning that he and Scott were “quietly optimistic” of a win but, after many court cases over the past 25 years, they were realistic.

“I don't know if we are at the end yet,” he said. “I'm sure the guys are thinking of the next stage if we don't succeed.”

Water-taxi driver Guy Wallace, who later recanted his evidence identifying Scott Watson as the person he saw with Olivia Hope and Ben Smart, and insisted he’d helped send an innocent man to prison.

Hope and Smart were last seen around 4am on January 1, 1998, climbing from a water-taxi driven by Wallace on to a yacht with a mystery man who had offered the friends a place to sleep.

Wallace initially denied Scott Watson was the mystery man on the water-taxi, even when shown photos of him, and he provided a description which varied significantly from Watson’s appearance on the night.

Scott Watson’s yacht, Blade, and the Furneaux Lodge water-taxi driven by Guy Wallace that delivered Ben Smart, Olivia Hope and a mystery man to a yacht in the Marlborough Sounds early on New Year’s Day, 1998.

He also said the mystery yacht was a 38-40-foot two-masted, wooden ketch, with portholes, a blue stripe on the hull, and considerable ropework.

This contrasted with Watson’s 26-foot, homebuilt, single-masted, steel sloop, with no portholes, hull stripe or ropework.

However, four months after the pair disappeared, Wallace picked Watson from a police photo montage, saying he looked most like the man on the water-taxi who invited Hope and Smart back to his yacht.

Scott Watson was 26 when he was arrested in 1998 for murdering Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. He has spent more than half his life in prison.

At Watson’s trial, Wallace again said the photo of Watson he was shown in the montage was likely to be the mystery man with Hope and Smart.

However, Wallace’s crucial identification of Watson has been strongly challenged, on the basis of many mistakes police made when showing him the photo montage and also how well he could have seen the mystery man on the evening in question.

Three international experts have reviewed Wallace’s identification, and consider it flawed and unreliable.

For his part, Wallace changed his mind after Watson’s trial. He insisted he’d been manipulated into making his identification and now felt he’d helped send an innocent man to jail.

Wallace died in 2021.

Watson’s case remains one of the most contentious in the country, with five books and numerous television programmes having focused on it.

His fifth bid for parole stalled in late May, when the Parole Board requested further evidence from psychologists about the risk Watson might pose if released from jail.

An exhibition of his art and carving, created while in prison, opened last month at a Lyttelton gallery.

Watson, now 53, will not attend the Court of Appeal hearing this week in Wellington, which is set down for five days.

– Additional reporting by Tom Hunt

Post journalist Mike White has followed the case for many years and is the only journalist to interview Scott Watson. Read his daily coverage of the appeal on The Post.