There were other options Tom Phillips could have taken.
The children, Jayda, 12, Maverick, 10, and Ember, 9, had the most carefree joyous years of a lifetime, stolen.
The pathway to rejoining their communities, is beyond comprehension of many – me included.
Their mother, a 46-year-old, known as Cat, hasn’t seen her children, since 2021.
If ever a human being had justification for getting “a bit over the limit”, Cat had it.
Discounts delivered by Courts today, to dangerous violent criminals is beyond justification.
If ever there was a case for leniency by a Court, it is the case of Catherine Christey who appeared in the Te Kūiti District Court on a charge of driving with excess blood alcohol after being stopped by police last month.
Ross Meurant BA MPP Former Police Inspector, Member of Parliament and Diplomatic Representative.
10 comments:
Once a statist, always a statist. The state pension sees to that, eh.
Agreed Ross. Four years without contact with your children would push anyone over the limit. I know how upset I was when my first wife broke an access arrangement for one of my sons for just one week.
Four years? It could drive one crazy
Is there a case for leniency for stuff and editor Keith lynch though for their performance in publishing police communications leading up to the fatal gunshots?
Stuff’s Editor-in-Chief Keith Lynch says his newsroom is bravely standing up for democracy by publishing pirated police radio audio from the Tom Phillips shootout. His column reads like a First Amendment sermon – “public interest,” “probing official narratives,” “threat to democracy” – but it’s really a pre-emptive strike against the legal action Police are openly considering.
Strip away the rhetoric and it’s plain: Stuff took intercepted police communications, dressed them up as investigative journalism, and is now hiding behind the banner of “journalists doing their jobs.” New Zealand law is crystal clear about unauthorised interception of police frequencies. So is Stuff’s own editorial code, which Lynch quotes when it suits him but quietly ignores when it doesn’t.
Tony Wall, the reporter fronting the story, has been on social media defending the publication as “public interest” and insisting the audio was already circulating online. That’s not exculpation – it’s an admission. Passing around bootleg material doesn’t magic it into lawfulness, or into journalism.
There’s another unspoken driver here: traffic. Stuff is a cash-hungry, click-measured machine stuffed with celebrity puff pieces, “weird news” aggregation and lifestyle filler. Viral police audio was gold dust for a staggering website chasing eyeballs. The high-minded talk about democracy reads a lot less noble when you realise how easily it doubles as an SEO play. “Public interest” becomes “public curiosity” – and public curiosity sells ads.
Stuff’s own code stresses restraint with police officers involved in lethal incidents, transparency about sourcing, and a rigorous public-interest test before using material obtained by subterfuge. Yet the Phillips audio was pushed out with a paywall click-bait headline and breathless promotion. The same code forbids illegal interception unless a public-interest case is overwhelming and cleared at senior level. We’re now learning that’s exactly what happened – only the “overwhelming public interest” argument has been retrofitted after the fact.
Lynch writes about “highly crafted statements” from authorities, as though every police press release is a psy-op. In reality, Stuff’s piece was the highly crafted narrative – cherry-picked audio, selective transcription, packaged for outrage. And now, with Police threatening action, the editor is spinning his own statement to make himself the embattled defender of democracy.
This is the hoist. By their own code, Stuff and Lynch have tied the rope. They’ve spent years lecturing others about misinformation, transparency and ethics. Yet when it suited them, they took unauthorised communications, splashed them for traffic, and called it public service.
Keith Lynch is right about one thing: the Phillips case does demand scrutiny – but that scrutiny now includes Stuff itself. And if Stuff won’t apply its code to itself, the courts just might. In the end, Lynch’s “public interest” defence looks less like Watergate and more like a desperate roadside sausage sizzle — smoke, sizzle, and the faint whiff of something dodgy. If it all burns down, it won’t be a chilling effect on journalism. It’ll be a cautionary tale about what happens when you swap ethics for clicks and then act surprised when the handcuffs arrive.
Absolutely agree!
Surprising comment Ross, and you an ex cop.
She could have got drunk and not driven a car.
mudbayripper
U have a valid point
But we all stuff up on occasions
Just a thought... The recent photos of the kids showed them healthy and happy. Maybe they had a BALL with Dad. Great adventure, and memorable times. Maybe glad to be free of Mum??? And Oranga Tamareekee- doubtful lot ? Who knows....
Rossco, as one ex Copper to another (1965-1973) I ask what you think of the present performance (or lack of) re Tom Phillips. Brian W.
Rossco - sorry I missed the word POLICE performance. Brian.
Inappropriate at this point in time to debunk the police actions at the time of Tom Phillips being shot. However, as to police response over the past 4 years? Absolutely pitiful.
As a former AOS cop we used to conduct exercises with SAS and Navy seals (or whatever was their label). These were exercises where e.g SAS or Navy were given orders to place explosives on a water tower in some remote zone.
AOS had different Ops Orders: Our were to track and trace dangerous bank robbers etc.
So what we had was two elite units lurking through bush forests undergrowth – (SAS) trying to evade being captured and plant a bomb (AOS) lurking and loitering in the bush watching for bandits to be captured.
The Phillips scenario provided a classic opportunity for AOS and SAS to unite and go hunting. Airforce helicopters with heat seeking apparatus. A mere 100K squares of bush.
Failure to undertake such an operation falls squarely on Commissioner Coster – for it was under his reign of (in my opinion) pitiful policing, that such a joint AOS SAS operation should have been launched and ongoing.
Can’t blame Commissioner Chambers; his lift in police appearance and performance has been positive and noticeable – to an ex-inspector like me. And, cant debate the police performance at the scene of Phillips death – at the present time. More facts and less gossip are needed.
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