Parole Board set to decide on Scott Watson’s release
Friday, 30 January 2026
Double murderer Scott Watson will make another bid for freedom on Friday, when he appears before the Parole Board for the sixth time.
Watson was convicted of killing friends Ben Smart, 21, and Olivia Hope, 17, after a New Year’s party at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds, on January 1 1998.
Their bodies have never been found, or any trace of their belongings, but police insisted Watson murdered Hope and Smart on his yacht after inviting them on board, and then disposed of them in Cook Strait.
Watson has always insisted he is innocent, but has spent nearly 28 years in prison - more than half his life - with his case being one of the most controversial in New Zealand history.
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He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years. The Parole board has rejected his application for freedom four times since 2015.
His latest bid has been delayed for nearly two years, due to the requirement for further psychologists’ reports, and a timetabling bungle.
In March 2025, Watson’s Parole Board hearing ran out of time, with many people, including Watson, unable to speak.
Because the Parole Board chairman, Sir Ron Young, was retiring a fortnight later, the board made a decision to abandon the hearing, and commence a new hearing at a later date.
“I don’t want to declare today a waste of time … I’m afraid we under-assessed how long it would take,” Young admitted at the end of the hearing.
Friday’s hearing is set down for four hours.
Watson’s father, Chris Watson, said two family members and another supporter would attend the hearing.
The family has steadfastly supported Watson, and fought to prove his innocence.
“We’ve just got to wait,” Chris Watson said. “We’re waiting as fast as we can.”
In September, the Court of Appeal rejected Watson’s latest appeal, saying it had no doubt he was guilty of the murders.
The decision was met with anger by Watson’s family and supporters, who vowed to keep fighting.
Lawyers for Watson have applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, with a decision on this still pending.
Watson has always challenged the identification of him as the person last seen with Hope and Smart, as they boarded a mystery yacht off Furneaux Lodge.
The identification from a police photo montage was made by water taxi driver Guy Wallace, but was highly controversial, given Wallace had already been shown and seen photos of Watson.
Wallace later insisted he was mistaken, and felt he’d helped put an innocent person in jail.
The other main challenge has been to forensic evidence regarding two hairs police said were found on Watson’s yacht, and were linked by DNA to Hope.
Considerable concerns have been raised about the hairs’ handling and examination, but the Court of Appeal ruled contamination was “extremely unlikely”.
However, investigations by The Post have shown that during recent testing of other hairs recovered from Watson’s yacht, there were two cases of contamination of evidence, with samples being handled without gloves, and in a non-laboratory area; and when a scientist’s eyelash was mixed with samples, and was DNA tested by mistake.