Source: Radio New Zealand
David Tamihere’s convictions for murdering Swedish tourists Heidi Paakkonen and Sven Urban Höglin have been quashed in a “remarkable decision” by the Supreme Court. NZ Herald / Jason Oxenham
David Tamihere’s murder convictions have been quashed, after nearly four decades, re-opening wounds and calling into question whether justice has actually been served
It took a jailhouse lawyer and a justice campaigner to break open a 36-year-old case and push for another day in court for David Tamihere, exposing a system that doesn’t like to think it’s made a mistake.
That’s investigative journalist Mike White’s take on the news this week that David Tamihere’s convictions for murdering Swedish tourists Heidi Paakkonen and Sven Urban Höglin have been quashed in a “remarkable decision” by the Supreme Court.
“It’s not too often that you get one of the most controversial cases in New Zealand’s history turned on its head,” says White, a senior writer for The Post and Sunday Star-Times who has written extensively about the case.
The five Supreme Court judges in a “very strong”, unanimous decision directed a retrial should be heard. The Crown prosecutor now has to decide whether to proceed with a retrial.
“It’s basically saying the Court of Appeal, our second most powerful and second most senior court in New Zealand got it really wrong,” says White.
In 2024, the Court of Appeal found there had been a miscarriage of justice but declined to quash his convictions.
White says the Supreme Court has made it clear that it is not saying that Tamihere is innocent, it is simply saying that his trial was fundamentally unfair and that the new case that has been brought by the Crown with a new scenario about the location of the Swedish couple has not been tested by a jury.
“That’s a fundamental right that David Tamihere has.
“So they [the Supreme Court Judges] are saying that Tamihere might be found guilty but to do that you need a new trial.”
White says this week’s decision is the right one in the interests of justice because so much of the evidence has been knocked out or refigured. But it also means the families of the victims have to relive the terrible events.
In today’s podcast, White sets out what happened in 1989 when Paakkonen and Höglin were reported missing on the Coromandel Peninsula, the arrest of Tamihere, his conviction and sentence.
Over the years, White has interviewed Tamihere – who has always insisted he is innocent – and spoken to people in Sweden closely connected to the case. This week it is once again front page news in Sweden and White’s story on Saturday will give that perspective.
“We think this is a New Zealand case, but this is still a very important case in Sweden which a lot of people remember and the country over there is still fascinated with.”
White details how in 2023 he broke the story about the involvement of the late property developer, Sir Bob Jones. Tamihere was in prison for less than a year when the lead investigator in Operation Stockholm, Detective Inspector John Hughes, met Sir Bob at a function. The two knew each other through their mutual interest in boxing.
“John Hughes came up to him allegedly. John Hughes had had a bit to drink and Bob Jones said that he started poking him in the chest and said, ‘I got Tamihere. We stitched him up, but he was guilty.”
Sir Bob was “absolutely adamant” that it had happened and wrote an affidavit for Tamihere’s lawyers explaining it, says White.
He says the case attracted a lot of attention, partly because it reflected badly on New Zealand.
“Here were two innocent travellers who’d come to New Zealand to enjoy what it offers and had disappeared and been murdered. All of a sudden it has sullied New Zealand’s reputation somewhat,” he says.
But there was much more to it.
“The police case against Tamihere had a lot of questions about it from the start and many more arose after Urban Höglin’s body was found, and they’ve continued.
“Everyone is trying to get to the bottom of it. It’s a whodunit in its most basic form. Like a lot of these cases, [the question is] have we got the right person and has justice been served?
“I think therefore it’s natural that journalists have continued to look at this and there have been some remarkably fine pieces of journalism written about the David Tamihere case including by Donna Chisholm, the legendary journalist, in North and South magazine.”
White says it’s not the first time a conviction has been overturned by journalists or others outside the system, like the jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor, private investigator Tim McKinnel and lawyer Nick Chisnall.
“What does it say? It says it’s a system that doesn’t like to contemplate that it’s made a mistake and it’s left to other people, not the authorities, not the police, not the Crown to push for the right questions to be asked and for another day in court for these people, leading to wrongful convictions being exposed,” White tells The Detail.
“This week’s decision is another example of how slowly and painfully the system works when it sometimes might have got it wrong.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
