Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sonya Rockhouse: Pike River family member says police have enough evidence to lay manslaughter charges

Transcript

Sonya Rockhouse: Pike River family member says police have enough evidence to lay manslaughter charges · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The lawyers representing the Park River families think police have
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: enough evidence to lay corporate manslaughter charges fifteen years after
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the tragedy. Sonya rock House and Anna Osborne have called
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a meeting with Brook van Velden a complete waste of time.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: They were at Parliament this week. Sonya rock House sadly
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: lost her son Ben in the tragedy and joins me. Now, Sonya,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good morning, good morning, Sonya.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Well, they've always had enough evidence. Like before, when the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: charges were first talked about with the they had enough
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: evidence way back then. So I don't know he could
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: a lot about it. Obviously, the police don't talk to
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: us about that stuff. So yeah, we just know that
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: there's been a whole lot of other evidence has been
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: gathered over the years. They did an extensive forensic scope
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: of the drift, spent several months doing that and.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Sonya, the problem was initially that their work
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Safe was doing an investigation, weren't they They were looking
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: at charges and the police are looking at charges, and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the police went, oh, well we can't both charge them,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: so you can do it, and then they did a deal.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct, So the police were going to charge
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and then WorkSafe said they were going to charge, so
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: the police backed off and then WorkSafe walked away. So
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: nobody did it. So and the reason that they yes, exactly,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: the reason that they did it was that Peter Whittle's
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: insurance company paid the family three point four one million
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: in exchange for the charges being dropped. So checkbook justice basically.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Sonya, do you know if there's any new evidence being
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: found or is this all old evidence?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know. The police, Like I said, the police
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: haven't talked to us about it because anything you know
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: that we don't want to prejudice possible future prosecutions. So
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I all I know is that over the last few years,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: up until it was settled again, they collected lots and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: lots of stuff to put forward to Crown, the Crown solicitor.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: So you know, the police, like us, just have to
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: sit back and wait. Now they've done their job as
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: best as they can do it, and we've done everything
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: that we can and now we just have to sit
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: back and wait for the big decision for the prosecutors.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Now, it's been a few years since I've spoken to you, Sonya.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: How are you doing? Are you ever at peace? I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: saw your at Parliament the other day. Is this torture,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you know? Is this still torture every day for you?
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: No, it's not torture every day. Yesterday was a tough day.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Anna and I actually went up to Caate I think
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: it's Kate Shepherd Park in Wellington. Oh, yes, and there's
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: a seat up there that's been dedicated to Helen Kelly.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: So we sat there just before the three point forty
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: four and then watched it, watch the time, and then
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: just tailed hands and closed our eyes and thought about
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: our men because of course we were away and that
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: felt really strange. But you know, we sort of took
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: solace in the fact that Anna and I were together,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: which we normally are on the anniversary anyway, but just
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: not up in Wellington, up at Parliament. Yeah. I mean
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: it's been fifteen years. It still hurts every day. You know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I've missed out on fifteen years of my son's life.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: He was twenty one when he was killed and he
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: would now be thirty six. So yeah, I think it
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: still hurts. Of course, it hurts, but you learned, you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: it's just it's just buried now, and on days like yesterday,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of course it comes out and we're still very very
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: passionate about, you know, getting truth, justice and accountability. That
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: will never go away. That passion is always there and
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: the pain as well. So the movie's definitely given us
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a list because you know, it's
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: we're very proud of it. I don't know whether you've
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: seen it or not, but I have.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I interviewed the director as well, and one of them, yes, yeah, no, no,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: great movie, sonya. We have to leave it there. Thank
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: you for coming on, and best of luck with the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: with the prosecutors. You know, I know your fingers and
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: totally crossed for that. For more from earlier edition with
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk Set B from
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: five a m. Weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio