Newstalk ZB
David Tamihere’s convictions for murdering the two Swedish tourists have been quashed, 37 years after the couple disappeared in the Coromandel bush. The upset decision from the Supreme Court today finds that Tamihere’s High Court trial in 1990 was unfair, and based partly on evidence that was “concocted to secure convictions”. It also says that the Crown’s later theories of what happened to Sven Urban Höglin and Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen when they went missing almost four decades ago have never been tested in front of a jury. While the Supreme Court has allowed Tamihere’s appeal, overturning his two murder convictions, it has also ordered a retrial. This raises the prospect that a 21st century jury would have to decide on a cold case from the last century, against an accused now in his early 70s who has already served 20 years in prison. But the court has left the decision on whether or not to proceed to a new trial up to Crown prosecutors. If they decide not to go ahead, it would mark the end of proceedings but leave many questions about the case unanswered. Last seen in Thames Höglin, 23, and his fiancée, Paakkonen, 21, were seen alive and together in Thames on April 7, 1989. Their distinctive white Subaru four-wheel-drive station wagon with a bull bar was seen at Tararu Creek Road, on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula, north of Thames, a couple of days later. Sven Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen. Photo / Supplied Tamihere later admitted that he stole the car and sold or dumped the backpackers’ possessions. But he said that he had never met the young couple, who had disappeared into the bush. Despite this, Tamihere was charged with murdering them and found guilty in 1990, after a jury trial based partly on evidence from a fellow remand prisoner who, many years later, was discredited and prosecuted for perjury. Tamihere was already in prison serving a life sentence when Höglin’s remains were found in the bush by pig-hunters in 1991, many kilometres away from where they should have been if the prosecution’s theories were correct. The evidence was that Höglin died close to where his body was discovered. Paakkonen’s remains have never been found. Tamihere has always maintained his innocence, taking his case through an exhaustive series of court battles, twice to the Court of Appeal and finally to the Supreme Court. He pursued the case long after he was released from prison on parole in 2010. In 2024, the Court of Appeal found there had been a miscarriage of justice because of the evidence the discredited prison informant, Roberto Conchie Harris, gave at the original High Court trial. Despite this, the Court of Appeal said new evidence in the case trumped that and “for that reason, the miscarriage does not justify setting the convictions aside”. However, the Supreme Court now says that was wrong, and has overruled the Court of Appeal decision. David Tamihere being led into court in 1989. Photo / NZ Herald In today’s unanimous ruling, it quashed Tamihere’s convictions. In doing so, it said that there was a “fundamental error” at Tamihere’s trial, which made the trial unfair. It also said that there had been a “recasting” of the Crown’s theory of what happened, which meant that Tamihere’s convictions were now based on issues, including questions of credibility and reliability, which had never been tested before a jury. On the run from police At the time of the Swedes’ disappearance, Tamihere had been on the run from police for unrelated matters for about three years and had been living mainly in the bush on the Coromandel Peninsula. Tamihere admitted he took the couple’s car but said he never met Höglin and Paakkonen and knew nothing about them going missing. The young couple’s disappearance led to a months-long search involving police, search and rescue crews, the Defence Force and Coromandel residents. Tamihere was later charged with their murder, based largely on circumstantial evidence, including the inference tha...
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