Weatherston v R

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Judge: Elias CJ,Blanchard,Tipping JJ
• Judgment Date: 13 September 2011
• Neutral Citation: [2011] NZSC 105
• Docket Number: SC 81/2011
• Court: Supreme Court
• Date: 13 September 2011

Clayton Robert Weatherston

and

The Queen

[2011] NZSC 105

Court:

Elias CJ, Blanchard and Tipping JJ

SC 81/2011

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW ZEALAND

Appeal against a conviction for murder on the basis that a television interview which occurred during the trial was so prejudicial that it may have affected the fairness of the trial; and that the prosecution should have obtained leave from the trial Judge before challenging the accused's veracity by cross-examining him on what he had said in examination-in-chief — whether the criteria for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court were satisfied.

Counsel:

R M Lithgow QC for Applicant

M F Laracy for Crown

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

The application for leave to appeal is dismissed.

REASONS

1 The applicant seeks leave to appeal against the dismissal by the Court of Appeal 1 of his appeal against a conviction for murder.

2 Essentially two matters are raised. 2 The first is whether a television interview of a Law Commissioner, Dr Young, which occurred during the trial was so prejudicial (against the background of other material concerning the trial or the defence of provocation) that it may have affected the fairness of the trial. We are satisfied that the Court of Appeal dealt properly with this matter. It is unfortunate

that Dr Young chose to go on television on the subject of the provocation defence while a well-publicised trial was underway in which such a defence was being advanced. But he was not commenting on Mr Weatherston's case nor on his particular use of the defence. His statement was made on a channel with a very small audience and did not achieve much prominence. There were strong directions from the trial Judge about ignoring extraneous publicity

3 The applicant attempts to bolster this argument by making something of what the trial Judge said long after the trial at a conference of Judges. We have had the opportunity of reading the text of her remarks and agree with the Court of Appeal that counsel is not correctly interpreting what the Judge said. The Judge's opinion that the New Zealand public “grew to despise Clayton Weatherston” was derived, as the Court of Appeal recorded, from the nature of the evidence in the trial, Mr Weatherston's evidence and the way he gave it, and the fact that the trial was televised. Her opinion had nothing to do with Dr Young's interview which is not even mentioned by her. If television coverage caused adverse...