“How can the public of New Zealand have faith in the criminal justice system when the honesty, openness and transparency of crown law is repeatedly being brought into question” Foster.
In court last week Senior Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk admitted to concealing crucial evidence in a murder trial, where he was present at a jailhouse meeting but did not disclose that information.
Further to this, the police, also in attendance at the jail house meeting failed to record Vanderkolk’s presence at the meeting in the police job sheet written up about the meeting.
Jackie Foster, CEO of Social Justice Aotearoa, is asking as to how a police job sheet can differ so greatly from the actual notes in a police officer’s note book, “once again this brings into question the trustworthiness of our police and obviously now our crown prosecutors”.
“This is not the first time a crown prosecutor has failed to disclose critical information to the courts, and it is about time there is a judicial enquiry into police and crown prosecution processes” Foster.