Crown decides not to pursue a retrial for David Tamihere in Swedish tourists case

The Crown announced this morning that it will not request a retrial for David Tamihere, the former high-profile double-murder convict whose 1990 convictions were nullified by the Supreme Court. Prosecutor Claire Paterson, speaking at a short administrative hearing in the High Court in Auckland, explained that admissible evidence no longer meets the threshold for a new trial. The Supreme Court had ruled the original case was unfair and partly built on fabricated evidence, yet it left the decision on a fresh prosecution to the Crown.

After a July hearing where the Crown asked for more time, Justice Simon Mount told Tamihere he could leave the dock as a free man. Tamihere had spent two decades in prison for the murders of Swedish tourists Sven Urban Hoglin, 23, and Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen, 21, whose remains were discovered years later, with Paakkonen's still missing. The case involved discredited prison informant Roberto Conchie Harris, whose testimony was later proven perjurious. The Supreme Court’s decision marks a significant reversal in a case that had long divided New Zealand’s legal community.