‘No need for counsel’

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 1

‘No need for counsel’

Sir Alfred says in his report that the nature of his inquiry was such that it would not have been assisted by the parties named being represented by counsel, the Press Association reports from Wellington. Sir Alfred said he received a letter from Mr Moyle’s Wellington solicitors at the start of the inquiry saying he wished to be represented by senior counsel, Mr John Henry’, of Auckland. At a meeting with him, Mr Henry agreed that Mr Moyle had a right to be represented by counsel as he was a person named in the order of reference whose conduct was in question. Sir Alfred said he told

Mr Henrv that if he was right in his submission he would have to give all the other named persons a similar right to be heard on the question of representation.

At the opening of the hearing on December 7, 1976, the Solicitor-General (Mr R. C. Savage, Q.C.), representing the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Police, and Mr H. Thomas, representing Chief Superintendent B. Kelly and Constable L. J. Comer, had agreed that the right of parties to be represented by counsel lay in Sir Alfred’s discretion. Mr Henry argued that Mr Moyle had a right to be represented by counsel in accordance with well established principles of natural justice.

“After hearing counsel I reached the conclusion that the nature of this inquiry was such that it would not be assisted by the named parties being represented by counsel,” Sir Alfred said.

He said he would bear in mind Mr Henry’s statement that he feared Mr Moyle could be put’ on trial and he Would do what he could to ensure this did not happen. “As I see it, my task is simply to decide what happened in 1975 and the use that was made of the incident in Parliament in November 1976,” Sir Alfred told counsel. Sir Alfred said that, while declining Mr Henry’s request to be present at the inquiry, he had

agreed to a request by Mr Henry that copies of police statements and the police record of a meeting between Mr Moyle, the Commissioner of Police (Mr K. B. Bumside) and the Deputy Commissioner (Mr R. J. Walton) should be made available to Mr Moyle and his solicitor. Mr Moyle, in a letter last month to the “Northern Advocate,” the Whangarei daily newspaper, in which he was critical of the inquiry, said Sir Alfred had not allowed him to be represented by counsel. “in fact, I neither heard r.or saw any of the parties who gave ‘evidence’ at the inquiry, and no opportunity was given to question any ‘evidence’,” Mr Moyle said.