Arthur Easton murder: Judge rejects plea to dismiss case against former police officers

A judge has rejected an attempt to throw out a case against two former police officers accused of omitting key evidence in the case of Alan Hall, who spent 17 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

Arthur Easton was killed in his home by a bayonet-wielding intruder on the night of 13 October 1985. Alan Hall was convicted of the killing but this was quashed in 2022 by the Supreme Court, which found a significant miscarriage of justice had occurred.

Two former officers, whose names are suppressed, are on trial in the High Court at Auckland charged with perverting the course of justice.

Ronald Turner is the Crown's star witness and gave evidence to the court last week. He said he saw a tall Māori man acting suspiciously and running across Clevedon Road in Papakura, not far from where Arthur Easton was killed.

It's alleged the former officers deliberately omitted this information in order to help their case against Hall, who does not fit his description.

One of the defendant's lawyers, David Jones KC, questioned the reliability of Turner's evidence.

"He said what he could see and what he couldn't see. And what he couldn't see was skin colour - he acknowledged that," Jones said.

"Now, if you can't see skin colour, what is he basing his ethnicity description on?"

Jones referred to an earlier statement by Turner which says: "thought about it lots, maybe I'm wrong".

"He could say, 'The man was green, he was a Martian'," Jones continued.

"It's exactly the same situation here. He's saying ethnicity; what do you base it on? He says what he bases it on. It's a nothing."

Jones said that all of Ronald Turner's relevant evidence was in fact presented to the jury at Alan Hall's trial via a written submission, although this did not include the information about ethnicity, which it's argued was unreliable.

However, Crown prosecutor John Billington KC told the court that Turner's evidence presented the police officers with "an almost insurmountable problem".

"There appears to have been an effort ... to ensure that what Mr Turner had said to the police on three occasions would not see the light of day."

Billington said the case was not about the credibility of Turner's evidence but rather the suppression of information that could have helped to clear Alan Hall.

Turner had been due to give evidence at one of Alan Hall's court hearings, but was ultimately told his written statement would suffice.

"The defence did not know what Mr Turner would say because the defence did not have the prior written statements and as a consequence of his [court statement] omitting the reference to ethnicity, the court didn't know either."

Justice Gault dismissed the application to dismiss the case against the former officers but is yet to deliver his reasons.

The defence is expected to open its case on Wednesday.