Death on the Island [08/07/2001] PRODUCER/REPORTER: PHILIP VINE Karen Intro: Fiji was their island paradise. But a week ago, it's where Red Cross director John Scott and his partner Greg Scrivener were killed in cold blood at their home in the capital, Suva, a double murder both shocking and mysterious. Why were they killed? Was it political or perhaps something to do with the fact that they were gay? Phil Vine with this report from Suva. PHILIP (V/O): They called him ‘The White Angel’. Winging his way in front on pointed guns, John Scott was a lifeline to the frightened hostages of George Speight during Fiji's last military coup. JOHN SCOTT: We're providing medicines and messages backwards and forwards under the normal international humanitarian law. MARETA TEVATA: Man John, if only you knew, if only you knew how much you meant to people. PHILIP (V/O): The unassuming humanitarian, head of Fiji's Red Cross, will never know now. Neither will his kiwi partner Greg Scrivener. And these are the last photos of John, taken Friday week at the aid agency’s fundraising ball. For appearance's sake he arrived with a woman. So did Greg, a measure of the social pressure their relationship was under. (TO CAM) Their house is now surrounded by police tape and under 24 hour guard, their shared bedroom a closed scene for forensic examination. John Scott and Gregory Scrivener were found dead here on Sunday night. Their necks had been severed by a machete in a terrible execution. And for these two men, seemingly so harmless, questions are now being asked: who were their enemies, and who stood to gain by harming them? MARETA TEVATA: I heard on the radio, it was a news flash, and I just thought, "Huh? What?" PHILIP (V/O): John Scott's deputy at the Red Cross, Marete Tevata. MARETA TEVATA: Got there, and it was all tapered with the police tape and I said to the men in the front, I've got to see John. I've got to speak to John, I have to see John. PHILIP (V/O): But she'd never see him alive again, nor Greg. They were attacked by an intruder at their house. POLICE COMMISSIONER ISIKIA SAVUA: The guy obviously was known to the pair, to the couple. He bashed down the door, he walked in, and cut them up. PHILIP (V/O): The man used a cane knife, mutilating their necks and heads, cutting off Greg Scrivener's arm and John Scott's finger. The first neighbour Rahid Umesh knew about the killing was when John Scott's houseboy came running over in a panic. RAHID UMESH: He was quite scared and he came here and told me what happened up there. PHILIP: What did he tell you that he saw? RAHID UMESH: He saw blood was spilled at the back door, and from the kitchen window he saw the blood was spread on the passage floors. PHILIP (V/O): But what was the motive for the attack? Robbery was ruled out, nothing was taken from the house. Speculation spread on the streets of Suva. There was talk of a political assassination, a lovers’ tiff, and police seemed focussed on the victim's sexuality. COMMISSIONER ISIKIA SAVUA: People are focussing on the good side of Mr Scott and his partner Greg. But people tend to forget that he's a practising homosexual. PHILIP (V/O): Police Commissioner, Isikia Savua. COMM. ISIKIA SAVUA: I don't profess to understand everything about homosexuality, it's just that they tend to be more vicious than the normal heterosexual relationship. PHILIP: You're saying that homosexuals are more vicious. COMM. ISIKIA SAVUA: Just that because we are talking now of two men and when one of them is slighted, it’s just that in our experience the anger tends to be transferred on to the actions that they take. JANICE GILES: They both said they didn't have any faith in the police protecting them adequately and their way of seeing that, or explaining that was because of homophobia within the police. PHILIP (V/O): Janice Giles, Greg Scrivener's sister. JANICE GILES: He loved John. They'd been together for 22 years. It was a very stable, committed relationship. PETER SIPELI: I think a lot of conservative people that don't approve of homosexuals see it as, "See, this is what happens to you people." PHILIP (V/O): John Scott's friend and gay campaigner, Peter Sipeli. PETER SIPELI: I first thought it was hate related. A lot of us thought it was hate related, so we were all like, "Oh my god, what about us." PHILIP (V/O): The murders have made a lot of people nervous, especially in the gay community. Peter Sipeli claims it's laid bare the attitudes of police. COMMISSIONER ISIKIA SAVUA: I wish to inform you that we will not be making an arrest today. PETER SIPELI: When Mr Savua said yesterday, “Oh they were homosexuals”, so homosexuals, you know, they involve themselves in a lot of illegal activity. That's how I felt when he said what he did, yesterday. JOHN SCOTT: Those of you who have not heard me speak before may be unaware... PHILIP (V/O): It's a country where gay sex is illegal but John and Greg have been relatively open about their relationship, sheltered by their money and John's position. Police have told reporters John Scott was once questioned in connection with pornography, but never charged. At the Red Cross, which continues to grow without him, that's not what they will remember him for. MARETA TEVATA: He was so humble you know. Like if you gave him this accolade he'd be so humble, and go, oh how kind of you. PHILIP (V/O): Mareta Tevata had the job of explaining what had happened to her friend and boss when John Scott's brother Owen and son Piers, flew in from London. OWEN SCOTT: A lot of people don't have enough information so in that regard, people are guessing. And I think we'll just take time initially to grieve and to pay tribute to John and Greg. PIERS SCOTT: I see it as having two fathers in a sense. They've been together for a long time, as you say. Greg's been a huge part of my life since I was four years old. PHILIP (V/O): Their lawyer advised them not to talk about the police investigation. It's a sensitive matter and police are under great pressure to get a conviction. The Commissioner set his officers a deadline of Friday to solve the case. On Tuesday they detained an ex policeman, Solar Voatha. This man spent a lot of time round at John Scott's house, and detectives suspected a romantic link with the dead man, though Voatha's family say that's not true. (TO CAM): Behind me is Solar Voatha's village. His family wouldn't talk to us, but villagers told 20/20 the former policeman has admitted being at John Scott's house the night of the murder. Apparently he left a bloodstained shirt behind, but he says he didn't do it. He's pointing the finger at another man, also there that night. (V/O): John John Akee, a known drug dealer, is the other man taken in for questioning. But if police were thinking he was also part of some homosexual intrigue, Akee's family say they were on the wrong track. JOE SELEKA: He was a drug addict. PHILIP (V/O): Joe Seleka says his half brother John John has been in and out of psychiatric care. JOE SELEKA: He's not mentally stable. So never get into an argument with him, because he likes to win. Even if he's wrong. When I found out that he was a suspect, I was not really sure if he did it. PHILIP: Do you think he's capable of it? JOE SELEKA: I think he's capable of doing it, but I wasn't sure. PHILIP: So do you think John John could have murdered? JOE SELEKA: I really don't know. If you provoke him, he's been known to be very, very wild. PHILIP (V/O): Today police are reported to be questioning a third man, so far no charges. This may signal a swing away from the personal and back to the political, the most contentious theory of all. John Scott was a key witness when George Speight overthrew the elected government of Fiji last May, taking the Prime Minister and others hostage. He could have testified in this week's treason trial against Speight. JANICE GILES: Because I know from my conversations with Greg and John during the coup that there were abuses of the hostages, that John wasn't allowed to say anything about because of the Red Cross neutrality. PIERS SCOTT: Dad was faced with a situation where he realised these people need help, and nobody else is going to step into the breach, and he did. And he told me he was nervous as hell. PHILIP (V/O): One of the many rumours circulating Suva is that a political motive would have been too embarrassing to contemplate. The Commissioner himself has recently been investigated for allegedly supporting George Speight and the coup. COMM. ISIKIA SAVUA : As a matter of fact I went to a Tribunal chaired by the Chief Justice. PHILIP: What happened there? COMM. ISIKIA SAVUA: I was cleared. PHILIP: Yesterday Greg Scrivener was buried in Tauranga. John Scott's funeral is set for Tuesday in Suva. Speculation will no doubt continue as to whether this was an act of random rage, or something more sinister. All in the Family PRODUCER: PHILIP VINE REPORTER: AMANDA MILLAR Karen Intro: Lillybing... A name that suggested joy for a little girl who never saw her second birthday. This was a case that many wanted to put behind them. It involved repeated and shocking physical abuse, injuries too horrible to show. But some of those most affected by this little girl's death don't believe we should let it go. There are still too many unanswered questions...questions which some of the family have appeared unable or unwilling to answer. Amanda Millar has been investigating the short life and death of Lillybing. AMANDA (V/O): Publicly two of the most reviled women in New Zealand, locked up for the death and physical abuse of Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha, the baby girl they called Lillybing. This is the way she would be remembered, but not the way she left the world. In sentencing the judge said it was regrettable that they alone were bearing the burden of responsibility for the toddler's death. Twenty-eight year old Rachaelle Namana got six years for manslaughter. Namana's sister, Rongomai Paewai, two years for cruelty and failing to get help. INSPECTOR ROD DREW: They were cruel, they were calculating, they were selfish and self centred. AMANDA (V/O): Inspector Rod Drew led the investigation. ROD DREW: They didn’t do the things that any sensible adult would do to care for this wee child who was so grievously injured. AMANDA (TO CAM): This isn’t just about two women and a baby and one hideous weekend. This is about the many people who held Lillybing in their arms and passed her on, passing on the responsibility, the responsibility for her wellbeing, her life and her death. It's also an insight into why and how a family could let this happen, to an extent that almost a year, on the question of who sexually violated the little toddler is still unanswered. But tonight we reveal a new allegation that casts the spotlight back on another family member. (V/O): While the Wairarapa police now have two women locked up after almost a year-long investigation, a miserable mystery clings to Carterton. Police and the community still don't know exactly who did what, why, and who else was involved. That information remains locked in the family, some of whom still support the sisters. NANA HINE: Whatever Rachaelle and Rongomai have admitted to, it doesn't make no difference to me how I feel about them. I raised them. AMANDA (V/O): The convicted women's grandmother, Hine Paewai. (I/V): Doesn’t that make you wonder why they did what they did when you raised them? NANA HINE: This is something I only talk to God about. There's a lot more people than them involved in this. Unfortunately that child was in their hands when she died. DAVID HEMOPO: They all knew that kid needed help, yet they all choose to look the other way. AMANDA (V/O): David Hemopo, the partner of Lillybing's convicted killer. DAVID HEMOPO: Eventually I saw that and decided, "Yep! That looks easier to do, just look the other way." So hey, I've got my own children, got my own family. That's where I'm at. AMANDA (V/O): Where it was at was in this house where Lillybing spent much of her life and where she died, the home of the woman she called Aunty Rachaelle and her partner of ten years, David Hemopo. DAVID HEMOPO: I think it was so happy that a lot of people were envious. Just how much joy there was in our house. AMANDA: Really? DAVID HEMOPO: Yep. AMANDA: Where did that joy come from? DAVID HEMOPO: From my children. Having them there. Can't beat it. It's everything. AMANDA (V/O): But they already had four children and one on the way and they were expected to take Lillybing, a child who wasn’t even directly related to them. Lillybing's mother is Terina Matiaha. Lillybing was the second of her three children. Terina's mother and Lillybing's grandmother, Josie Matiaha, a controlling influence in the family, took new-borns off her daughters and sons to give them a break. Josie entrusted Lillybing to her stepdaughter, Rachaelle Namana, the aunty who would end up shaking her to death. Rachaelle had a baby a few months older so she would also breastfeed Lillybing. DAVID HEMOPO: She had a mum, she had a nan, she had people that knew her, her aunties beside Rachaelle and Rongomai. Its like we were the last resort. No-one else is gonna look after this kid. Lets take her to Rachaelle and David's. AMANDA (V/O): So what sort of environment was Lillybing’s last resort. David Hemopo did the shopping, cooking and got the kids up for the school bus every morning. He says he gave up cigarettes and cannabis for his kids, and while he says he smacked them, he never bashed them. (I/V): What's the difference? DAVID HEMOPO: Well I guess, the bash is the bash. Once you've had the bash you know what the bash is. You get hit, you cry, you get hit till you can’t cry no more. You land on the floor, you get hit again, you get kicked, you get told to fuck up, that's the bash. AMANDA (V/O): Although David says Rachaelle never bashed their kids, she had been hitting Lillybing long before her death and was so worried that she’d do serious damage that she confessed to a community worker. It was agreed with Lillybing's mother Terina, and grandmother Josie that they would stop leaving Lillybing with Rachaelle. But after several weeks, Lillybing was left by her grandmother Josie in Rachaelle's care again. And Rachaelle Namana couldn't say no. (I/V): Why would she keep saying yes to Josie? DAVID HEMOPO: Josie can come across as a hard lady when she wants to. I think she just installed the fear of wrath of God in Rachaelle. You shut up, you handle it. This is in our house, no-one else knows about it. We’ll deal with it the whanau way, no other ways, just the whanau way. POLICE VIDEO: Did you hit Lillybing at all? RACHAELLE NAMANA: Which day? POLICE: Any of the days. RACHAELLE NAMANA: Yes I did. AMANDA (V/O): Rachaelle Namana agreed to be interviewed nearly a month into the investigation. POLICE: Was that like a normal smack or was it harder than that? RACHAELLE NAMANA: It was a normal smack 'cause she was stealing food out of the kitchen. AMANDA (V/O): That's the only violence Rachaelle confessed to, and that didn't explain Lillybing's terrible injuries. Police say the photos of Lillybing are too graphic and horrifying to show. Ninety bruises and cuts to the baby's body. ROD DREW: Well you can see in this particular photograph the dreadful extent of the bruising right along both of her legs, lot of bruising around her lower abdomen, stomach, you can see the burning on the pubic area. AMANDA: The vagina. ROD DREW: The marks on the wrists, which I've described before as consistent with being tied perhaps. AMANDA: But it's the face, it's that little face. ROD DREW: Yes, the face is, the face is haunting really. AMANDA (V/O): Rachaelle Namana pleaded guilty to manslaughter but she’s never given police a clear picture of what happened that weekend and why. ROD DREW: I don't think we're seeing a psychopathic killer. I think there's an element of the woman who couldn’t say no, and a woman who was under pressure and finally that’s what’s led to it. AMANDA (V/O): On the weekend of Lillybing’s death, Rachaelle Namana had a deadline to meet. She was the administrator for the local Kohanga Reo, the Maori kindy that had to be up to scratch by Monday. She was 7 months pregnant with her fifth child, looking after four others and Lillybing was dropped off again. Lillybing's mother Terina, had taken another one of her children to hospital with dehydration that Thursday. And Lillybing's grandmother Josie brought Lillybing round. POLICE: Were you angry or happy? RACHAELLE: I felt like, how would you say it, they've done it to me again sort of feeling. POLICE: You mean Josie and Terina. RACHAELLE: Yeah. POLICE: So you felt like Josie and Lillybing's mother had done it to you again? RACHAELLE: That’s right. AMANDA (V/O): Friday, Rachaelle Namana spent most of the day at the Kohanga Reo, working into the evening. At about 8 o’clock she started toilet training Lillybing in a violent lesson that lasted three hours. ROD DREW: Smacking that went on for a long period of time, repetitive attempts to force her to step up on to the step and get on to the toilet and when she was unable to do so, repeatedly being smacked around the legs and the bottom. She must have been terrified. Her aunty that she loved and had the care of her for a long time, was punishing her for not doing something she wasn't capable of doing. POLICE: Were you smacking her, trying to get her get up the steps Rachaelle, because she wouldn’t do it? RACHAELLE: No I was yelling at her. POLICE: And what were you yelling? RACHAELLE: Hurry up Lillybing, just get up there. Hurry. POLICE: I know this is hard Rachaelle, but it really is important to tell truth. RACHAELLE: I wasn't smacking her, thank you very much. AMANDA (V/O): The next day Lillybing seemed sickly, falling over several times, developing a nasty bruise on her forehead. Police say at some stage, the aunties applied a scalding hot cloth to her head injury that severely burnt the top of Lillybing's face, a burn so bad specialists say, if Lillybing had survived her face would have needed skin grafts. ROD DREW: It wasn't done as a form of torture or anything of that nature. I’m satisfied it was just thoroughly bad and absolutely stupid treatment for the bruise on the forehead. AMANDA (V/O): This from two women who’d recently completed first aid courses. That Saturday night David was playing in a band at the local pub. Lillybing’s mother Terina was there, and Namana and Paewai took turns checking out the music and the sick baby at home, as Lillybing’s condition was deteriorating. The next day and Lillybing's last, a birthday party for Rachaelle and David’s 8 year old, saveloys and crayfish. Lillybing wasn't eating and David said she looked sick and was falling over. The kids wouldn't play with her because they said she looked like a freaky monster. (I/V): Why didn’t you think, let's get in the car, take her to hospital, ring an ambulance, get a doctor? Why didn't you do that? DAVID HEMOPO: She was always falling over, even before this happened. She was always sick. I used to ask her mother "Is she okay?" Her mother said, "That's just normal for her. That's just how she gets attention." ROD DREW: The dreadful facial injuries, to describe it like a mask is the only way to do it really. It covers all of the skin area around the top and probably through round cheek level, and a big burnt area down her chin, and these weeney, weeney eyes with white skin surrounding them where she’s protected her eyes by squeezing her eyes closed. AMANDA: Because of the pain she was obviously going through. ROD DREW: Yes. POLICE: She's had her little eyes squeezed shut when it's happened... and you've seen that because you've described it to us. You've described seeing it. So I'm trying to find out how and why it happened. RACHAELLE: Well you're not asking the right person. POLICE: Okay. Who would be the right person to ask. Rongomai? RACHAELLE: I don’t want to comment. AMANDA (V/O): Though she gave an initial statement on the night of the killing, since then 27 year old Rongomai Paewai has exercised her right to silence and her exact role in all of this has never been clear. ROD DREW: There's no question that the two collaborated on what, had to decide on what they were going to do, and I would have to say that Rongomai Paewai certainly presents as the far stronger personality of the two, despite the fact she's the younger sister. AMANDA: How powerful do you think she is? ROD DREW: I think she's very powerful and very strong in the relationship she has with Rachaelle. AMANDA (V/O): Police believe mid afternoon on Sunday 23 July Lillybing was punched in the stomach and shaken violently, causing a fatal brain injury. ROD DREW: The child was sleeping on a couch. They filled empty plastic milk bottles with warm water and packed them around her to try and warm her up. And at one stage Rongomai had placed her down inside her jersey and was trying to warm her up with own body warmth. AMANDA: At this stage Lillybing was dead? ROD DREW: That's right. AMANDA (V/O): David Hemopo urged both women more than once to take Lillybing to hospital, but they didn’t seek help till around 11 o'clock, four hours after she was dead police say. And even then, they went first to a friend's who was a nurse and she finally forced them to go to hospital. Lillybing was pronounced dead on arrival. Rigormortis had set in. Karen Back Announce: In a moment we reveal just what went on in Lillybing's family after her death, and new information on the sexual violation of the child. That's next. PART TWO: Lillybing was killed fifteen days short of her second birthday, and now almost a year later the investigation continues. Police are still trying to determine who sexually violated the toddler. But tonight, a new development that may mean the police, the family and the public can soon let Lillybing rest in peace. Amanda Millar with part two of her report. AMANDA (V/O): The death of Hinewaoriki Karaitiana-Matiaha became public property, the latest in a line of high profile child killings. There was outrage and disgust. People wanted to know who and why. Unfinished business still hangs over the baby nicknamed Lillybing, blame and suspicion swirls around. What of David Hemopo who had charges dropped against him of failing to provide the necessaries of life. He'd been in and out of the home as the toddler deteriorated. (I/V): Don’t you accept that you could have done a lot more David? DAVID HEMOPO: At that time I didn't know what I was looking at. How can you look at something like that, and if you did know what was happening too, would you accept it. I'm not denying that, yeah sure okay, maybe there was more I could have done. There was a hell of a lot more people could have done for Lillybing. AMANDA (V/O): David Hemopo was also questioned, then cleared of the sexual violation of the 23 month old Lillybing. The post mortem revealed she'd been penetrated that weekend and a few weeks before. The latest attack, left untreated, meant Lillybing would have eventually bled to death. ROD DREW: She was badly lacerated, the top of vagina was torn and she was bleeding internally, and she had a tear to her outer genitalia as well, which was bleeding. AMANDA (V/O): Namana told police she and her sister had noticed something wrong with Lillybing's vagina that weekend, but she wasn’t accepting that she should have seen the blood. RACHAELLE: Nah, I don't believe you. Sorry, but nah. POLICE: Did you see her bleeding from her vagina at any stage over those three days? RACHAELLE: Nah, I changed her nappy, there was nothing there so I think you’re making all this up man. AMANDA (TO CAM): The talk is that key family members have known all along who sexually violated Lillybing but they closed ranks to protect that person. So when the two women were packed off to prison, the police vowed to keep up the pressure to expose who did it. And just weeks into Rachaelle Namana's sentence here at Arohata Women's Prison, she has given a new statement to police, naming a relative that she says is responsible. She claims that she saw this person with a knife after her children came running to her and said that he was quote, "cutting up Lillybing." ROD DREW: Well it's good news that she's spoken to us, that we can work through and conduct some analysis of what we know and then some further investigation that can be generated from it, and then I hope probably go back to Rachaelle Namana again and get some more detail that might help us to determine just exactly how true what she's told us is. AMANDA (V/O): This is a family big on blaming others and police are considering Namana's new statement in that context. From the beginning, they say the strategy was to break down that wall of silence that was controlled by key family members. That challenge continues today. ROD DREW: There were other close, very close members of the family who were involved in actively trying to make sure that nothing was said. AMANDA: Can you tell us who they are? ROD DREW: Well I don’t think its appropriate that I do really. AMANDA: You're talking about Nana Hine? ROD DREW: I can't comment on that. NANA HINE: I didn’t control their lives. AMANDA: You didn't control what they said to the police. NANA HINE: Nah. I didn't know what they were going to say to the police. AMANDA (V/O): But David Hemopo claims Nanny Hine rang Rachaelle and told her she must take the blame. DAVID HEMOPO: I think Hine Paewai chose Rongomai over Rachaelle AMANDA: Is this about favourites? Favourite grand-daughters. DAVID HEMOPO: I think so. She rung Rachaelle up one day, blamed Rachaelle, said it’s all her fault, you're always getting Rongomai into trouble, you take the blame for this, your sister should walk free. AMANDA (V/O): Hine Paewai says she made a call after an elder who has since died, wanted to talk to the two sisters. NANA HINE: He said I want your permission to go and talk to Rachaelle and Rongomai because Rachaelle is the one who did it. And then if she don't own up to it, she's going to get them both into jail. AMANDA: Rachaelle's the one that put her hand up to killing that baby. Rachaelle said she shook that baby to death. DAVID HEMOPO: No Rachaelle never said that. That's just how the facts were stated from the Crown Prosecutor. She's never said that she shook her, shook Lillybing. AMANDA: So who did? DAVID HEMOPO: Well there’s two of them in jail. One’s saying nothing. AMANDA: Is there any chance, do you believe, that it could have Rongomai Paewai? ROD DREW: No I have to be satisfied that Rachaelle Namana has been the common thread right throughout the three days that these injuries have been inflicted. DAVID HEMOPO: There was a deal done with the Crown Prosecutor which was my charge would be dropped, Rongomai would get a lesser sentence than Rachaelle. The main thing Rachaelle was looking at was me being returned with my children if she pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The police wanted someone to plead guilty to manslaughter. ROD DREW: There was no deal of any sort constructed. Right throughout this investigation, exactly this type of innuendo, rumour, inference has been issued by these two women, and to a lesser extent David Hemopo and their friends. I see it really as a laying off of blame to others, to lessen the effect on them. AMANDA (V/O): David Hemopo isn't welcome in Carterton anymore. He’s barred from just about all the pubs. He's desperately trying to get his kids back. And that’s what this is about - children. ROD DREW: There must be somebody who is vitally interested in every child, at every moment of the day, inquiring where they are. That’s the major message for me. AMANDA (V/O): Now there’s nine kids on the family tree separated from their parents, in state care or with relatives, and one less branch growing there. NANA HINE: You know I mourn Lillybing. I mourn for her all the time. I think about all these other children that have been separated from their parents. This is what has happened to my family. AMANDA: So how do you repair that? NANA HINE: Keep on loving, keep on caring.