Police announced they would be doing two internal reviews following the Supreme Court's quashing of Alan Hall's conviction in June. Photo: 123rf.com
Police will not confirm if they're on track with internal investigations spurred by the Supreme Court's overturning of Alan Hall's murder conviction.
Alan Hall was convicted of murdering Arthur Easton in 1985, but the Supreme Court quashed his conviction in June this year, calling it a substantial miscarriage of justice.
Following the decision, the police announced they would be doing two internal reviews: one would be a full review of the original police investigation, while the other would be more targeted, looking at whether officers were responsible for a decision not to include crucial witness statements about the ethnicity of the attacker in court.
The terms of reference outlining the scope of the review of the police's investigation of the murder were released in July. The document states the 'review' phase of the investigation should have been completed "as soon as possible and in any event no later than 30 September 2022".
But the police are refusing to confirm if that has happened, or what that means.
"The reviews surrounding the investigation of Arthur Easton's murder remain ongoing at this time," a spokesperson said.
"At this stage there is no definitive completion date, as our focus remains on these internal reviews being able to be carried out thoroughly."
The statement said the police were aware of the interest in this matter and would endeavour to provide further updates for the public when they were in a position to do so.
When asked for clarification by RNZ whether the reviews alluded to in the statement referred to the same "'review' phase of the investigation" due to be completed last month, the spokesperson said the police had nothing further to add.
Alan Hall's brothers Greg, Geoff and Robert speak outside the Supreme Court. Photo: RNZ
Meanwhile, Alan Hall's brother Geoff says the family cannot move on until all the investigations prompted by the quashing of the conviction are wrapped up.
"We've got inquiries going on all over the place, with the IPCA (Independent Police Conduct Authority), two inquiries with the police, another inquiry with Crown Law ... we've had meetings with Crown Law and we've got a meeting coming up with IPCA, but we haven't heard anything from the police and kind of don't expect to," Geoff said.
"At the moment we are in limbo, we're just waiting, when we get phone calls from the different groups that are doing inquiries we just sort of deal with it as they come.
"It is just sort of lingering on, this is important though because there are some serious questions that need answers."
The family was not privy to the police's internal inquiries, he said, but his understanding was that they were due to be completed in September.
"We're still a month along and no word on that yet," Geoff said.
"Members of our team have enquired with them to get an update and their update was it was still ongoing."
While he did not know why the investigation may have been delayed, Geoff said he could only guess there was more work to be done than initially thought.
"They've spoken to our legal team so I would imagine they would've spoken to the victim's, and then they have to really decide what they're going to do. It's a tough, tough question for them because they've got to take ownership," he said.
"What happened to Alan didn't happen by accident, it happened by design - that's my view and that's going by the evidence that I see. They have some serious questions to ask themselves in this case and of what their officers did back in 1985 and 1986. And they've got to do the right thing today, everybody is interested in what their results are and it has to be a result that is clear for everybody to see that the police's actions today are what they expect of their police force."
