Tamihere murder retrial: 'One final thing to be done'

<p>David Tamihere will wait until the end of September to hear whether he will again stand trial for the murders of Swedish backpackers Heidi Paakonen and Urban Hoglin in 1989.</p> <p>The door to a retrial was left open after the Supreme Court quashed his convictions in March.</p> <p>At the Auckland High Court today, Crown prosecutor Alysha McClintock asked for more time to decide on another trial.</p> <p>"There is an important process to be gone through here to assess all of the evidence," McClintock told Justice Downs.</p> <p>"There is one final thing to be done and that is sought to be progressed as quickly as possible, and the Crown is seeking a further eight weeks to confirm the position."</p> <p>Defence lawyer James Carruthers said his primary concern was over a trial "dealing with events 37 years in the past."</p> <p>"We currently don't have any certainty around the case against Mr Tamihere, the evidence being relied on, the witnesses and exhibits being relied on. The longer it takes for all that to be clarified, the greater the bottleneck prior to trial."</p> <p>He indicated a potential trial would be at least 13 months away.</p> <p>Justice Downs addressed Tamihere in the High Court today, saying it was understandable that he wished to know today whether a retrial would take place.</p> <p>But he granted the Crown's application for more time.</p> <p>"I am persuaded that the interests of justice are commensurate with a further extension," he said.</p> <p>The judge gave the Crown until September 30 to inform Tamihere whether it will pursue another trial.</p> <p>Outside court, 1News asked Tamihere what he thought of the time being taken over a retrial decision.</p> <p>"It's just par for the course," he said.</p> <p>Asked whether it was frustrating, he said: "I've gotten used to it. It's been 30-odd years or so."</p> <p>Tamihere was convicted of the murders of the Swedish backpackers in 1990, in one of New Zealand's most high profile crimes.</p> <p>He maintained he was innocent but lost several appeals. He was released on parole in 2010.</p> <p>The Supreme Court said its decision in March to quash his convictions was based on two factors.</p> <p>Firstly, it said there were fundamental errors in the initial trial which made it unfair. It pointed to Tamihere being convicted on circumstantial evidence, with neither body of the Swedish couple having been found at that time.</p> <p>Secondly, the Supreme Court pointed to evidence which came to light after amihere's conviction, including that of a key witness who was found to have committed perjury, and of the discovery of Urban Hoglin's body in a location that didn't fit with the prosecution's case. The Supreme Court said these issues should have been tested before a jury.</p> <p>For those reasons, the Court directed a retrial, but left it for the Crown to decide whether to conduct such a trial.</p>