Murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope

Murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope

Date	1 January 1998 (1998-01-01)
Duration	Missing for 24 years, 1 month and 12 days
Location	Endeavour Inlet, Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand
Coordinates	-41.093599, 174.187584
Type	Disappearance, presumed murder
Deaths	Smart and Hope presumed dead in absentia
Missing	Ben Smart, Oliva Hope
Convicted	Scott Watson
Trial	June to September 1999 Justice Dick Heron presiding
Verdict	Guilty
Convictions	Murder
Sentence	Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 17 years

Ben Smart and Olivia Hope, two young New Zealanders, disappeared in the early hours of the morning on New Year's Day, 1 January 1998. The two friends had been celebrating on New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds with other partygoers. The pair accepted an offer from a stranger to stay aboard his yacht in the early hours of the morning. It was the last time they were seen alive and their remains have never been found. The disappearance of the duo sparked one of the most publicised investigations in the history of New Zealand.

After a five-month investigation, Scott Watson was arrested and charged with the murder of Smart and Hope. Watson's trial generated considerable media attention and public debate. After an eleven week trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of seventeen years.^[1] Watson has maintained that he is innocent and has filed several unsuccessful appeals. In June 2020, it was announced that his case would be referred back to New Zealand's Court of Appeal.^[2][3]

The disappearance of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope and the resulting conviction of Scott Watson remained a subject of speculation for many years following the trial, and has been the subject of multiple books and documentaries.

Disappearance of Smart and Hope[]

In December 1997, friends Ben Smart (aged 21) and Olivia Hope (17) celebrated New Year's Eve at Furneaux Lodge, located in the Endeavour Inlet of the Marlborough Sounds, with 1500–2000 other partygoers.^[4] Hope had travelled to the lodge with a group on a chartered yacht, Tamarack, while Smart had arrived separately. At about 4:00 a.m., lodge bartender Guy Wallace drove Hope and Smart in his water taxi to Tamarack, where the pair intended to sleep.^[5] When Hope and Smart found there were no vacant berths remaining aboard Tamarack, they re-boarded Wallace's water-taxi. At the time, Wallace had three other passengers on board: Hayden Morresey, Sarah Dyer, and a single man who would become crucial to the police investigation.^[6] The single man offered the pair a place to sleep on what he said was his yacht. Wallace let Smart and Hope off with the single man at the yacht, and then dropped off the two other passengers at their bach. This was the last time Smart and Hope were seen alive.^[4]

Police investigation[]

Ben Smart and Olivia Hope were reported missing on 2 January 1998. Initially the Blenheim police treated the investigation as a missing-persons case, but it soon became apparent that the disappearance was suspicious and out of character for the duo. Detective Inspector Rob Pope was appointed to take charge of the investigation on the 5th January and a mix of police staff from across the country joined the investigation, which was restructured as a homicide case.^[4] The investigation was named "Operation TAM" (short for Tamarack) and generated widespread interest from the public and media.

The investigation was large in scope, featuring requests for information from the public, significant amounts of interviews across the country and months of extensive searches of the waters surrounding the Endeavour Inlet. Despite this, no bodies were ever found.^[7]

The unknown man[]

With little to go on, police began trying to determine the identity of the unknown man that offered Ben and Olivia a place to sleep on his boat.

In his police statements on the third and fifth of January, Guy Wallace described the unknown passenger with whom Hope and Smart left his water-taxi as having two days growth on his face, possibly arm tattoos, wiry build, 5'9", short dark wavy hair, being scruffy in appearance and wearing a levi shirt with jeans.^[4] Hayden Morresey, who could remember less than Wallace, described a similar age, build, hairstyle and clothing. Sarah Dyer said she could not remember much about the man beyond the fact Ben and Olivia boarded his boat.^[8] Wallace worked with police on a computer sketch of the man he had seen, but said that the result did not accurately depict the man as he remembered him.^[8]

Wallace maintained that the man on his taxi was the same notable man he and other staff had served in the lounge bar earlier in the evening. This was crucial to the police, because other witnesses could not identify the man on the taxi, but were able to identify the man at the bar.^[8]

A suspect stands out[]

Police noted that there were many descriptions of Scott Watson earlier in the night that were similar to descriptions of the unknown man. People described Watson as having a scruffy look that night, saying he had wavy hair, needed a shave/haircut and was wearing similar clothes.^[9]

Watson was 5'9", Caucasian, had dark brown hair, had a similar build to the description, had forearm/hand tattoos (notably a skull with "skin" written across it, a reference to white supremacist ideology) and was born in 1971.^[10] Watson was reportedly heavily intoxicated, confrontational and had crudely propositioned more than 20 women at Furneaux Lodge that night. One witness reported seeing Watson around 2:00 a.m. walking away from a blonde girl holding her face and asking why he had hit her, but police were unable to locate this girl.^[11] Investigators soon took an interest in the Picton local, who lived on his 26' home-built steel sloop, Blade.^[4][11]

Later in the investigation, Pope would say that Watson "stood out like dog's balls" and "had the right sort of agenda and pedigree", apparently referring to his criminal record.^[12] Watson had 48 criminal convictions at the time, mainly from when he was a teenager for burglary, theft, cannabis offences, two counts of possessing an offensive weapon and one for assault when he was 16. He had been imprisoned for two short periods in 1989 and 1990, during which psychiatrists characterised him as a racist who had a problem with aggression.^[11] Watson had seemingly cleaned up his act in his 20's, having just one conviction in the eight years leading up to 1998. The conviction was in 1995, when he had threatened a truck driver with a "marlin spike" during a dispute regarding a dinghy.^[5][11] A witness to the confrontation described Watson as a "scary little bastard" who spat at and tried to intimidate him for being a witness to the alleged crime.^[10]

When police interviewed Watson's friends and associates, some said that he would often be aggressive and crude towards women when intoxicated. Others said that Watson had enthusiastically talked about the idea of raping and killing women on more than one occasion and that he had bragged that he could get away with murder. Police also interviewed a teenage girl who stated that Scott had pulled a knife on her when insisting she come to a bedroom for sex, saying that she was sure he was serious and that she was able to run away when her flatmates were alerted.^[9]

The mystery ketch[]

Guy Wallace told police and the media that he had dropped Smart and Hope off at a wooden ketch (a vessel with two masts).

On 3 January 1998, Wallace drew a sketch for police of what he thought the boat he dropped the duo onto looked like. He drew a yacht with two masts and wrote "38–40 foot ketch?" on the drawing, underlining the word "ketch" twice.^[13] Wallace would describe the ketch as well-maintained, built of timber and with a thick blue stripe on the hull, which had several round portholes with brass surrounds. He also said it was rafted in a group of between three and five other vessels.^[14] In an early police interview, Wallace described the ketch as low to the water, calling it a "wet boat", saying that it was not a big step from his water taxi and that he was able to hang onto the yacht without reaching up.^[15][9] Detective Landreth measured the height of the deck on Watson's distinctly low yacht, the Blade at 54 cm above the water line.^[9] Well after the trial was over, Wallace would reenact Ben and Olivia boarding on both the Blade (using Watson's actual boat) and a high sided yacht (standing in for the mystery ketch) for a documentary.^[16] Wallace said the Blade was far too low during the reenactment and the high sided yacht was far closer to what he remembered.

Hayden Morresey, another passenger on the water taxi, partially supported Wallace's description. Morresey was interviewed by the police three times in January 1998, but did not mention the boat having a second mast or the word 'ketch' until a fourth interview on 8 February 1998, after doing a television interview discussing the mystery ketch theory.^[14]

Police analysed thousands of photos taken on New Year's Eve and interviewed all of the boat skippers there. However, police were unable to corroborate Wallace's reports of a mysterious ketch in the Endeavour Inlet that night, or find any of the "three to five" vessels it was rafted to.^[17][8]

Eventually, Detective Pope would publicly state that the police were fairly certain the ketch did not exist at all.

Public reports of boats similar to the description flooded in during the weeks after the disappearance, sometimes dozens of reports for a single boat that police had already eliminated.^[9] A number of witnesses who came forward with sightings of a ketch were either told their information was not wanted, or their statements were not followed up. Police being uninterested in new information regarding a ketch was an abrupt change and because the public was given little reason why, some began to distrust the investigation.^[18] Former detective Mike Chappell, who worked on the case, later claimed officers had been told not to follow up sightings of two-masted ketches.^[19]

The location Wallace and others identified as the location of the ketch, where Ben and Olivia boarded a boat from his taxi, was the area where the Blade was rafted (tied) to another boat, the Mina Cornelia.^[8]

Police seized Watson's comparatively small sloop, Blade (which had a steel hull, no portholes and only one mast) on 12 January, to the surprise of many following the case.^[20]

The investigation narrows[]

Watson was being interviewed by Detective Tom Fitzgerald when police seized the Blade and executed search warrants on the homes of his parents and sister. During the interview, Fitzgerald directly confronted Watson for the first time in the investigation, asking Watson to come clean and tell him where the bodies were. After the interview Watson sought legal Counsel.^[12]

With Blade undergoing forensic examination,^[8] rumours about the Watson family began to swirl in the small town of Picton, as well as in national media. Later, Watson would accuse police of influencing media coverage of the case, suggesting they leaked rumours to reporters that his family were criminals, that he was a guilty man and that he had an incestuous relationship with his sister.^[12] Police also reportedly followed and intimidated members of the Watson family.

Police obtained warrants to tap the phone lines of Watson and his associates from February until his arrest, an investigation known as "Operation Celt".^[4] Police recorded 70-plus hours of Watson's phone conversations and during that time they regularly fed Watson’s former girlfriend questions to ask. At his trial, the jury heard 40 minutes of edited conversations secretly recorded across several months.^[17]

Guy Wallace said he felt tremendous pressure from police and the media, saying he felt so pressured after one police interview he could not drive.^[21] The relationship between Wallace and police had deteriorated when police said the ketch did not exist, and concerns over Wallace's reliability were raised after he had admitted to entirely fabricating a detailed account of a road trip to Nelson to sight a suspected ketch. Police grew concerned when Wallace continued to add further detail to his account of the water taxi ride, specifically comments made by Ben Smart that other witnesses did not recall. Police were also frustrated with Wallace's increasingly elaborate descriptions of the mystery ketch.^[15]

Watson identified[]

Between January 1998 and 20 April 1998, Wallace was shown photographs of Watson included in photo montages. He was shown two photographs of Watson in montages when he was interviewed by police on 9 January 1998 but Wallace said he did not recognise anyone in the photographs.^[22]

On 20 April 1998, Wallace was shown a photo montage that became known as montage B. Watson was depicted in photograph 3 with his eyes half-closed, which would become known as the blink photo.^[22] When Wallace identified photograph 3 as the man on the boat, he said he believed the man in the photo was the unknown man, noting that the unknown man's hair was more unkempt, he had more stubble and he had a lower fringe. Wallace said it was the eyes of the man in photo 3 that really stood out to him.^[8] Watson was arrested for the murders in the early hours of 15 June 1998, about five months after the pair were reported missing.

Trial[]

The trial, which attracted considerable media attention, commenced on 10 June 1999 and concluded when the verdicts were delivered on 11 September 1999.^[1] Olivia Hope's father Gerald said he felt that much of the prosecution case was "pure theatre" focused on emotional manipulation of the jury.^[23] Ben Smart's mother Mary disagreed with Gerald Hope; "we think differently, as far as we are concerned it was a fair and just trial".^[24]

Watson's suspicious circumstances[]

Much of the Crown's evidence was circumstantial and relied on witness accounts of the night's events.

The Crown said that Watson went alone to the celebrations at Furneaux Lodge with the intention to pursue women, that Watson's boat was moored in the same location that the pair boarded the mystery man's boat, that witness descriptions of Watson's behavior and appearance that night made him a match for the mystery man, and that he had expressed to associates a desire or willingness to kill people in the year prior.^[8]

The Crown detailed Watson's "suspicious and unusual" behavior on the morning of New Year's Day: uncharacteristically leaving without disturbing others, leaving one of his yacht's fenders behind, leaving early despite only recently retiring for the night drunk, perhaps not going to sleep at all and having no pressing reason to leave early.^[8] Other factors were Watson's alleged lies regarding his whereabouts; aspects of his statements the Crown suggested were attempts to deflect attention away from himself. They backed this up by highlighting inconsistencies in his statements, and by playing tape recordings from Operation Celt (not released to the public). The Crown suggested that Watson's inability to produce the clothes he was wearing on the night was also highly suspicious.^[25][26]

Reliable witnesses testified that they sighted Watson's yacht in Cook Strait (where the Crown would argue he disposed of evidence) which was inconsistent with Watson's statements of his whereabouts. The defence would argue that the sighting of the Blade in Cook Strait at 4:30 p.m. was not possible due to other sightings of the Blade in Erie Bay making the distance travelled impossible, due to the speed of the Blade and the direction of the tide. The time and day that Watson arrived in Erie Bay remains a contested issue, with some suggesting statements given by the Erie Bay caretaker were influenced by pending drug charges.^[5]

Addressing theories of the "mystery ketch" and the "mystery man"[]

Watson's defence requested that the identification of Watson from the blink photo be excluded from the trial, saying the photo was not an accurate likeness, but the judge denied their request.

In depositions, Wallace was again asked about how sure he was about the blink photo. Wallace said he was pretty definite that the person in the photo was the man who was on the water taxi with Ben and Olivia, saying that he believed it was the same person. Wallace was also shown a confirmed photo of Watson with his eyes closed from early in the evening on a yacht named Mina Cornelia, which purported to show Watson as clean shaven. Wallace said he didn't think it looked like the man from the water taxi, but later reconsidered and testified in court that it was quite difficult to say from the Mina Cornelia photo if it was the unknown man he had been describing, but that he still believed Watson was likely the man from the water taxi.^[8][13] Wallace would change his position some time after the trial, saying he felt mistreated by the police and that he felt Watson was innocent,^[13] a position he maintained in multiple interviews until his death in March 2021.^[27] Wallace also intimated in interviews later in his life that he knew who the "real killer" was and speculated about the mystery ketch, prompting some to question his credibility.^[13]

Morresey testified he never saw a second mast, but felt it was a ketch based the amount of ropes he remembered seeing. He said Blade was too small, did not have a stripe of colour on the hull and was too low in the water.^[14]

The Crown spent a significant amount of trial time on the elimination of all other boats moored/anchored in the Endeavour Inlet, including the only other lone yachtsman present that night, who had a distinctly different physical appearance from the "mystery man" and was moored well away from where Olivia and Ben were dropped off. The Crown argued that the distinctive ketch described by Wallace could not have slipped in and out of the Endeavour Inlet unseen by the other skippers, who had a keen interest in boat-watching. Wallace testified that the only similarity between Watson's Blade and his memory of the ketch was that "they both float".^[13]

Evidence of a clean up[]

The Crown said that Watson painted parts of the outside of his yacht from red/brown to blue immediately after New Year's Eve and removed a distinctive wind vane, suggesting an attempt to alter his yacht's appearance and possibly conceal forensic evidence.^[28] They highlighted that Watson told his ex-girlfriend he had been given the paint a year beforehand, which was inconsistent with a statement from the Erie Bay caretaker who said he gave the paint to Watson on 2 January 1998, after the duo went missing.

The Crown questioned the absence of material covering and foam from two sections of the Blade's squabs (Watson told his ex-girlfriend they were caused by a hot pot, then changed the explanation to a cigarette/paint at a later date), evidence of cleaning/wiping of the interior of the yacht (including wiping the inside of the cassette cases) and selective cleaning of the hull of the Blade, all of which suggested Watson was trying to cover up evidence. Defence would point out that the Crown's fingerprint expert testified that only "30-50%" of the hard surfaces on the Blade were wiped down and the amount of fingerprints was no more or less than expected (Watson had taken his sister Sandy sailing soon after New Year's Day).^[29] Watson's defence also argued that Watson had cleaned the Blade due to sea spray from a rough trip from the North Island shortly before New Year's Eve (the trip was corroborated and not contentious).^[30]

Scratches on the Blade's hatch[]

The jury was shown scratches on the interior foam lining of the hatch cover on Watson's boat, which the Crown would argue were consistent with marks made with human finger nails, suggesting Olivia had clawed against it trying to escape. Defence argued that the scratches could only be made when the hatch was open (owing to the fact the scratches extended right to the edge of the foam, which was covered when the hatch was closed). The hatch was not lockable from the outside. Watson and his sister maintained the scratches had been made by Watson's nieces.^[31]

Hair evidence[]

The Crown produced two blonde hairs purportedly taken from a blanket on the Blade. Susan Vintiner, a forensic biologist, testified in court that one hair was matched to Olivia Hope through DNA testing.^[32] Defence counsel questioned the chain of custody regarding the hair, suggesting Vintiner may have cross contaminated the hair samples by examining known hair from Olivia on the same table and day as she examined the samples taken from the Blade. When questioned on this theory, Vintiner testified that mistaken contamination is an explanation that "needs to be considered". Defence also questioned a 1cm hole in the evidence bag containing reference hair for Olivia.^[33] The accuracy of the hair testing has been questioned by other experts during appeals in the years following Watson's trial and remains controversial.^[34]

Cellmate confessions[]

The jury heard from two prisoners who said that Watson had admitted his guilt while in prison. Defence argued one witness had "significant purpose of his own to serve" and the other witness "had little opportunity to develop any close relationship with Watson such that a confession might be made".^[8] One witness was later revealed to have been granted the use of a car and cellphone for his testimony,^[35] and both were considered to have been given preferential treatment from police. One of the secret witnesses retracted their testimony to the New Zealand Herald after the trial, but later would prove to be generally unreliable regarding the confession.^[36]

The two-trip theory[]

During trial, a different water-taxi driver (Don Anderson) testified that he dropped Watson at the Blade some time between 2:00 – 4:00 a.m., and occupants on the Mina Cornelia and the Bianco recalled asking Watson to leave them alone after he boarded their boats looking to continue the party in the early hours of the morning. Both the Crown and the Defence agreed that this trip took place. The Crown submitted evidence that Watson was involved in an altercation with a young man named Ollie Perkins regarding a necklace given to Perkins by his ill sister, which was corroborated by others as taking place between 3:00 –3:30 a.m. at Furneaux Lodge. The Crown argued late in the trial that Watson had returned to shore after Anderson dropped him off at Blade, but could not say how. This became known as the two-trip theory, which the Defence said "came out of the blue". The Crown argued that it did not matter that the prosecution could not prove how Watson got back to shore, just that witnesses were certain he was there well after his trip with Anderson. If this timing was correct, it strongly suggested that Watson was the unknown man on Wallace's taxi, as it put him on the jetty in the same timeframe as Ben and Olivia and there was no evidence of another boat taking Watson to the Blade. The two-trip theory was raised during appeal, but was not considered grounds for a new trial.^[1]

Verdict[]

Watson was convicted of the murders in September 1999 after an eleven-week trial^[37] and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of seventeen years.^[38] Watson told the jury "You're wrong" when the verdict was read out in court, and has continued to insist he is innocent since conviction.^[39]

Appeals and controversies[]

The defence appealed Watson's conviction, and the case went to the Court of Appeal in April and May 2000. Three Appeal Court judges heard submissions from both the defence and the prosecution, but decided there was no new evidence to recommend a second trial.^[40] They disregarded the defence's submission that the prosecution's so-called "two-trip theory" had appeared "out of the blue" late in the trial.^[40]

Questions have been raised about the manner of the police investigation, notably by Mike Kalaugher, who in 2001 published a book which was critical of methods allegedly used by police to obtain Watson's conviction, and by Keith Hunter, in a 2003 television documentary and a 2006 book.

In November 2000, after the Court of Appeal hearing, a witness who testified at Watson's trial contacted the Weekend Herald to say his evidence given under oath was "nothing more than an act". He said he was being threatened by gang members in prison; he was coming up for parole and was put under pressure by police to testify and, "I agreed on the basis that my life was getting threatened". The witness changed his story at least twice more, which led Watson's lawyers to conclude he was completely unreliable.^[36]

In 2003, Watson's lawyers Mike Antunovic and Greg King applied to the Privy Council, which found no grounds for further appeal.^[41]

In 2009, Watson unsuccessfully applied for a Royal Pardon.^[42][43]

A 2010 report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority cleared police of allegations by Hunter and Watson's father Chris Watson. It found the police investigation had fallen short of best practice in areas which "had no significant bearing on the outcome of the investigation". No evidence was found that would support Hunter's other claims.^[44]

In June 2015 Watson successfully challenged at court the Corrections Department's refusal to allow him to be interviewed about his case by North and South journalist Mike White.^[45] On 8 and 9 November 2016, the interview went ahead as planned.^[46]

Also in June 2015, Watson was denied parole on the basis of two failed drug tests and an unfavourable psychological report that attested him "a very high risk" of committing violent acts if he was released from prison. Watson's Council was given permission to have him assessed by a psychologist independent of the department of corrections.^[47][48]

On 6 December 2016, Watson was denied parole a second time because departmental psychologists again said his risk of violent offending was still "very high". Watson's counsel said they were not instructed to seek the independent psychologists report, but when pressed it became clear that he had been assessed and his team produced the report for the board to read. The Independent report, dated 2 November 2015 agreed that Watson had "an elevated rate and speed of recidivism, particularly to violence" saying the conclusion was "on the basis of evidence based practice using a combination of actuarial measures and clinical data" the independent expert considered the characterisation of Watson to be valid.^[47]

In November 2017, a second application for a Royal Pardon was filed on Watson's behalf by an Auckland man and ex-convict who had taken an interest in the Watson case.^[49] The application concerned the reliability of the evidence relating to two blonde hairs found on a blanket on Watson's boat. It included a report by forensic scientist Sean Doyle which questioned whether the hairs were really Hope's, and criticised the way the hair samples were handled at the time of the original trial. The blonde hairs, believed to be Hope's, were the only physical evidence linking the couple to Watson.^[50]

In June 2020, it was reported that Watson's case would be referred back to the Court of Appeal.^[51][52] In December 2020 parole was rejected over lack of psychological treatment.^[53] In November 2021, Watson was declined parole for the fourth time.^[54] Scott Watson has also been declined bail in the Court of Appeal October 2021.^[55]

The next parole board hearing is scheduled for October 2023; his appeal is due mid-year in 2022.^[56]

Other events[]

Watson married Coral Branch in Paremoremo Prison in 2004.^[57] They separated in 2007.^[58]

In 2007, Watson was found guilty by a magistrate of assaulting another inmate in Paparua Prison. In 2008, his appeal against that conviction failed.^[59]

See also[]

• List of murder convictions without a body
• List of solved missing person cases

Further reading[]

• Jayson Rhodes & Ian Wishart Ben and Olivia – What Really Happened? (Auckland: Howling At The Moon Publishing, 1999) ISBN 0-9582054-4-2
• John Goulter Silent Evidence (Auckland: Random House, 2000) ISBN 1-86941-386-5
• Mike Kalaugher The Marlborough Mystery (Auckland: Tandem Press, 2001) ISBN 1-877178-91-8
• Murder on the Blade? television documentary, 2003
• Keith Hunter Trial by Trickery: Scott Watson, the Sounds Murders and the Game of Law (Auckland: Hunter Productions, 2006) ISBN 0-473-11721-5
• "QC rubbishes Scott Watson case claims". The Sunday Star-Times. Stuff. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
• Hubbard, Anthony (31 January 2009). "Who killed Ben and Olivia?". stuff. Fairfax NZ Ltd. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
• Ian Wishart, Elementary: The Explosive File on Scott Watson and the Disappearance of Ben and Olivia (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106469
• Ian Wishart, Elementary 2.0: The Unreleased Police Evidence on the Scott Watson Case (Auckland: Howling at the Moon Publishing, 2016) ISBN 9780994106476
• Doubt: The Scott Watson case television documentary, 2016

References[]

External links[]

• Trial by Trickery
• Crime.co.nz- Operation TAM – Olivia Hope and Ben Smart
• "Guilty of harassment – crime – national". Stuff.co.nz. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
• "Convicted double murderer Scott Watson plans fresh bid for freedom". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
• Article by Ian Wishart published in 2018