The Darren Hughes investigation
June 7th, 2011 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarBevan Hurley in the Herald on Sunday reports:
Friends and former colleagues of Darren Hughes have put pressure on police to decide whether to charge him over sex allegations.
Labour Party figures risked accusations of political interference by calling on police to “give the guy a break”.
And close friend Paul Henry said it was “extraordinary” the case was dragging on, more than three months after an 18-year-old student alleged Hughes sexually assaulted him.
Wellington police defended the length of the investigation, saying it had to be “thorough”.
Labour figures expressed support for Hughes as pictures emerged of the 33-year-old former Otaki representative on a Hawke’s Bay beach at Easter. He was pictured with Henry, his girlfriend Linzi Dryburgh and Auckland list MP Jacinda Ardern.
In his new memoir, Henry described Hughes as his second closest friend.
I think it is a good thing that Darren’s friends are sticking hy him, and supporting him. That is what friends should do.
Labour list MP Stuart Nash said the lengthy investigation was unfair on Hughes and the 18-year-old complainant. He called on police to “give the guy a break”.
“If there is something there then charge him, but if there’s not then let him get on with his life. You can’t leave him hanging.” …
Former Labour Party president Andrew Little joined calls for a swift resolution.
“It wasn’t as if there were people to hunt down, anyone who had anything to say about it would have been interviewed.”
Having MPs and senior political figures call on the Police to do something, however well intentioned, is a bad judgement call.
It goes without saying that it would be better for both the complainant and Darren for a decision to be made earlier, rather than later. The Police will know this. They will not be delaying a decision just because they can. They will be working with Crown Law to make sure that their decision will hold up to scrutiny – no matter what it is.
Having MPs call for the Police to take a particular action, because it involves one of their friends, is not a good look. But worse, it makes the job of the Police even harder. If the Police decide not to charge, then some people may feel it was because of the pressure put on them.
Let me hasten to say I do not think the Police will be influenced in their decision, by the comments by Nash and Little. But it would have been better if they had not spoken publicly at all.
Tags: Darren Hughes, Police
June 7th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
What? Our hero of free speech and anti-PC Paul Henry calls leftie Darren Hughes a good mate?
***READIES POPCORN…***
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Nash and Little have only demonstrated Labour’s usual complete lack of understanding of how the system is supposed to work, and why they as individuals shouldn’t be anywhere near – or play any part in the conduct of – New Zealand’s House of Representatives.
We should expect far, far more of those who become MPs.
And to think Little has leadership ambitions …
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
Little Andrew does know better, but this is the way the left roll.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
The concern being shown by labour members is touching.
What about the 18 year old YOUTH who was obviously scared shitless over something I suspect was particularly unsavoury, so much so that he felt compelled to run naked into the street to escape, from the labour deputy leaders house at 2am.
What about him eh?
I thought he had promise also as a junior labour MP or somesuch, no loyalty there is there. I suspect it is a case of ‘silly little bugger” shitting on our good friend Darren.
Let the police get on with their investigation and bugger the time taken, it is far more important to get the decision right.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Will the “Paree” Hughes be another botched investigation, as the Police did with Brash’s e-mails?
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Flip the situation and make it a conservative MP (now former) who was facing accusations from an 18 year old school girl.
He would have HAVE any friends and the media woudl be crapping on anyone who spoke up for him from a great height.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
I certainly hope not Manolo, hopefully they realise that Helen is no longer in power, and that they are free to make all the right moves without fear of interference.
The labour MP’s coming out and hinting that the police are taking too long to probe Hughes, is a case of using the faint power of intimidation left after dear leaders and H2′s departure. Toothless wonders.
Again I ask, where is there concern for the YOUTH that was so scared he ran naked down the stret at 2 am from the Labour deputy leaders house?
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Henry described Hughes as his second closest friend.
I’m bitterly dissapointed in you, Paul.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Quite right Murray, where are the cries of outrage from the media luvvies, screaming because the labour MP’s are trying to usurp justice?
Their silence on this matter speaks volumes
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Three months seems a ridiculously long time to make a decision on this. I’m no friend of the Labour party, but the Police should be able to decide whether to prosecute or not within around 1 month IMO. Anything longer smacks of under resourcing or ineptitude unless there is something particularly unusual about this case.
[DPF: And we don't know if there is or is not]
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
@ciaron, after watching the Henry interview a couple of nights ago I am not surprised.
I would love to hear him come out and say that he feels some compassion toward the YOUTH that ran naked from the deputy labour leaders house at 2 am because he was scared shitless.
I would also love to hear this from those senior labour MP’s who want to influence the police procedures. using their ever diminishing ability to make veiled threats.
[DPF: You are making assumptions. We do not know for sure what happened yet]
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Well, Paul must be a bloody good actor… Everything I’ve heard him say on telly led me to believe that he would not foster a frendship with someone of Hughes’ character.
I’m seriously considering a letter to the BSA on false advertising grounds.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Three months is a hell of a long time to have something as serious as a possible rape charge hanging over your head. While I understand DPF’s point, I wonder how long Police can go before scrutiny of their tardiness is appropriate. 6 months? A year?
Presumably if a charge is finally laid, it will be another 12-18 months before trial. Which means up to two years between the (alleged) event and a verdict.
Police and Crown Law shouldn’t get a free pass if they are underpricing the cost of delay, which is surely tremendous for the accused, even if sitting MPs and party presidents is not the way to go public.
[DPF: The scrutiny should come from the lawyers for the parties involved and/or the media. They are quite capable of asking what is the delay. It should not come from Members of Parliament or aspiring MPs]
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
In June of 2009 Richard Worth resigned from Parliament while being investigated. In November of 2009 police announced that he would not be prosecuted; anyone who claims the police are being slow in investigating Hughes, against whom serious allegations have been made, and who did not make the same claims about Worth is hypocritical.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
“Nash and Little have only demonstrated Labour’s usual complete lack of understanding of how the system is supposed to work, and why they as individuals shouldn’t be anywhere near – or play any part in the conduct of – New Zealand’s House of Representatives.
We should expect far, far more of those who become MPs.”
So I assume we’re all agreed John Key should resign from the House forthwith after saying about the protests against oil exploration off the East Cape that: “If that was happening on dry land police would be in a position to do something about it.”?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4874044/PM-hits-out-at-Petrobras-exploration-protesters
Because it would be a shame to have one rule for Labour folks and another for National ones. Right?
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
And WTF is UP with Paul Henry?
Thats you off my facebook you turncoat bastard.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Ben, if charges are laid then a summary trial could take place within 6 months. Even jury trial would take place inside a year at worst. This would not be a complex case.
And 3 months isn’t that long. Some investigations can take right up to the 6 months that the Summary Proceedings Act gives them.
But DPF is right that the friends of Hughes, especially those in the public eye, should not be making these sorts of call. It is very inappropriate. If Hughes wants the police to hurry up then the he should request his lawyer to write to the cops about it. Putting pressure on the police via the media is inappropriate.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Nice try at deflection AG, but no cigar!
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
lofty we don’t even bother ag’s pathetic trolling anymore. Never has said anything, never will.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
What is wrong with Henry being mates with Hughes?
Surely you’re not suggesting people with differing views on politics and differing tastes in sexual partners are not allowed to be friends.
The gereatrics seem to always mistake the public theatrics of politicians and public figures with their actual personalities.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Nothing wrong at all bed rater. I just wish someone in Hughes friends list, would show , if not compassion, some recognition of the fact that an 18 year old YOUTH ran naked from the labour party deputy leaders house at 2am obviously scared shitless at something I suspect being less than wholesome being carried out in the deputy leaders house.
Paul Henry does not figure in my rant, I am aiming fair and square at the senior MP’s in the labour party who are trying to pervert the cause of justice in this case.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Police are caught in a bind over this. I am sure they recognise the undesirability of delay, put to rush forward with anything less than a really really thoroughly prepared case would be worse. The long hiatus between accusation and a decision over charges is probably the least bad course available.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
ciaron (says:
I’m bitterly disappointed in you, Darren.
What, that one member of the smug born-to-rule elite is chums with another surprises you? Scratch the thin veneer of blue or red and you’ll find peas of the same pod… and a sense of abiding superiority and a willingness to do whatever it takes to maintain their position (including mislead the rest of us).
You’ll often find that some trougher has been a member of another political party. Not just one that could be seen as also a natural home for a person who supposedly believes as they do, but something quite often diametrically opposed to the beliefs they expressed in order to get their face in the trough.
Some write this off, as Churchill did, as a process of maturing. And in a few cases that might be true. More often than not it’s simply indicative of a belief that they were born to rule, and they’ll leap aboard any party that gets them there. Thus with no fundamental principles other than their own advancement, there’s no ideological gap between the likes of Hughes and Henry.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:27 pm
“Labour figures expressed support for Hughes as pictures emerged of the 33-year-old former Otaki representative on a Hawke’s Bay beach at Easter. HE was pictured with Henry, HIS girlfriend Linzi Dryburgh and Auckland list MP Jacinda Ardern.”
What is going on here?
Read as written, Linzi Dryburgh is Darren Hughes girlfriend but elsewhere it seems that she is Paul Henry’s girlfriend.
Sloppy journalism and the sign of unclear minds writing unclear script?, another example of the declining standards in grammar and comprehension exhibited by our churnalists? or is Paul Henry really onto something here with a threesome?
Wouldn’t we all like to know? There might be a knighthood in it.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Thanks Rex I could not agree more.
Sums up the “type” beautifully.
The fact that his supporters are calling for quicker police action, shows them up as thinking they can influence the justice process of this country, which in turn shows them up as arrogant troughers.
I am upset at their action, and I know that the born to rule syndrome is not exclusive to Labour, but to some individuals in all parties.
The fact that they think they can affect the natural justice process, annoys me greatly. I would feel the same if it was Nats or anyone else.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
A superb and insightful comment Rex W.
More often than not it’s simply indicative of a belief that they were born to rule, and they’ll leap aboard any party that gets them there. Thus with no fundamental principles other than their own advancement, there’s no ideological gap between the likes of Hughes and Henry.
Once these folk have had a taste of political power, no matter how fleeting or inconsequential, they seem to be of the opinion that the country cannot do with out them.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Corroboration of the victim’s evidence will be crucial to a successful prosecution and it may be difficult to obtain. I think GOFF has stated that Hughes explained his position fully to him. If so Goff could be a key but unwilling witness, as may be King. They could be refusing to talk to the Police or only doing so through prepared statements from legal advisers. The Prosecution may have to consider whether to subpoena them and even declare them hostile. Not a good look approaching an election. Also a headache for Police Headquarters Legal Advisers who will be leaning over to be evenhanded.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
“victim’s”
Complainant. We don’t know if he is a victim or not yet.
“The Prosecution may have to consider whether to subpoena them and even declare them hostile”
I would hope the police would not subpeona them without actually knowing what they would say in evidence- that would break the barristers first rule: never ask a question you do not know the answer to.
And the prosecution cannot declare any witness hostile, a judge has to do that if the witness shows they are hostile once the person is in the witness box. Anyway, the prosecution shouldn’t be calling someone they know is hostile, they should leave that to the defence.
Come on, backster, with your police background you should already know this!
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Why is anybody at all grizzling about this?
The “ginger-infringer” himself hasn’t complained (nor has the naked teenage boy – his alleged victim) about the delay – as far as we know. Everybody else are just voyeurs.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@ Rex; yes it does surprise me that two parties can be ‘friends’ when one is a delicate little petal, and the other famous for engaging mouth before brain. I find it hard to imagine that it would be to long before Paul said something to which Darren would take offense.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Helen will be shaking her head in dismay: “Didn’t I teach those idiots anything!?! They should have directed the Police like I showed them .. and kept it out of the media FFS!. A please-explain by TXT coming up”
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
krazykiwi
Ive no doubt Helen has reminded them how she handled the LAX matter and how she would have ensured the Hughes matter would have been dealt with ‘appropriately and in the public interest” under her watch
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Where did this “Paul Henry is a right winger” thing come from?
He always look soft to me when interview helen & co
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
@ciaron:
That overlooks the fact that Henry’s entire persona is an act. Those screeching to protect his “freedom of speech” don’t seem to see that what they’re asking to protect isn’t the expression of strongly held beliefs, however repugnant, but a hollow vaudeville act designed with one end in mind: to generate publicty and thus increase his perceived value to the fools who pay the salaries of media “stars”. And of course to feed his desperate need for validation by reading about himself in the Sunday papers.
That’s why I’d step up to defend the right to free speech of Kyle Chapman before I stood behind Paul Henry. The former is misguided, wholly wrong and utterly repugnant but he believes what he’s saying. If, OTOH, this was a conservative country with a prevailing right wing ethos Henry would be promoting six figure welfare packages and Queens Birthday honours for criminals – anything that’s “controversial” enough to get him noticed.
Thus as I said before, with no principle whatsoever beyond their own advancement (and belief that they’re a cut above the commoners) Hughes and Henry would be a perfect match.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I thought Paul Henry was a racist and Labour did everything it could to have him sacked, and to implicate John Key in Henry’s Governor General statements? Now we find that Hughes and Ardern are on holiday with him?
I want to know why Jacinda Ardern is on holiday with a racist and a suspected sex offender? Because Labour would go ape shit crazy if Nikki Kaye was spotted on holiday with a racist and a suspected rapist.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Is three months enough time for the police to work oput if there is a case to answer, too long or are our constabulary really that dim.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
A very pertinent question.
[DPF: Because you stand by your friends, especially when they have not even been charged with an offence. ]
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
the cops aren’t pissing around with the randy sod from the IMF
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Well now they have finished tje weekend with a nil but one deathon the roads and a weekend playing plod in their cars they can geton and do some detective work.if that’s what’s needed. After all, the issue must be really opaque to tAKE SO LONG. nO ONE WAS CHASED, NO ONE DISSAPPEARED AND THE PROTAGOMNISTS FRONTED UP WITHOPUT A PROBLEM. nO WONDER JSUTICE IS FUCKED IN THIS COUNTRY. iT TAKES 3 MONTHS TO DECIDE THAT A CRIME HAS NOT BEEN COMMITTED AND longer to decide to find one. Too much legislation and not enough get over it, thatlife on earth.
wehat’s our Govt. deficit. 17.5 billion and we waste money on this crap becuase some stupid university student can’t use his brains and keep his mind on his own welfare. well too fucking bad for him
Vote:Grow up.
June 7th, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Because Labour would go ape shit crazy if Nikki Kaye was spotted on holiday with a racist and a suspected rapist.
Well she can holiday with me and we will give it a test. 8)
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
backster said
It was good backster that you were able to avoid, in this particular case, suggestions that the PNHQ legal guys were bending over backwards
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
re AG – “So I assume we’re all agreed John Key should resign from the House forthwith after saying about the protests against oil exploration off the East Cape that: “If that was happening on dry land police would be in a position to do something about it?”
The one thing that is absolutely constant among Labour/Leftist/Union-bred fuckwits is that they never address the actual situation under debate, but they’ll try and adduce or compare it to another situation where some sort of “supposed” comparison might be attempted – no matter how dubious or inappropriate. Demonstrably, they are arterially deficient in the most basic appreciation of matters of principle such as they, in their thankfully infrequent periods of government, would have been fully expected to understand.
Principle is principle and competence is competence. Today such attributes are more sadly lacking than ever on that side of the House.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
positan,
Labour’s figures are wrong to be seen to be pressuring the police to act here. Just as John Key was wrong to be seen to be pressuring the police to take action against the Petrobras protesters.
You understand this principled point, yes? Good. Moving on then …
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I am so sick and tired of GAYbours problems.
“Oh! can’t you people jussst let it go? he’s a beautiful man jussst expresssssssssssssing him ssssself!! the boy was jussst overwhelmed by his FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA bulousss-ness. “
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 5:49 pm
@ Rex –
Judging by your complete distaste for anyone and everyone who believes they have something to offer the country and some good work to do, I presume you were nothing at all like that, and that you were a completely helpless victim of your own political career rather than in any way the instigator mover and shaker behind it?
People were forming a mob outside your house, begging you to stand for parliament and lift their burdens from them? Eh? EH???
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
They are urging the police to back off.
Vote:The sleaze continues.
June 7th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
@DPF 12.55., damn right I am making assumptions David, and I reckon with fairly strong grounds too, but it is not whether or not Hughes played silly buggers with the lad, but more about the righteous labour MP’s trying to influence the judicial system,
these are in some cases elected members of parliament and should not only know better, but act better.
I may be naive in this matter, but it is important to act well as an MP elected or imposter. From whatever party.
As my dear old Mum (RIP) used to say..manners matter young lofty, manners matter.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Sometimes scientific testing has to sent offshore. Given the samples would have been taken from Full Moons house the coppers would want to be certain of their evidence. For example.
And it would be terrible for the details to dribble out leading up to the election.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 9:22 pm
DPF: “I think it is a good thing that Darren’s friends are sticking hy him, and supporting him. That is what friends should do.”
DPF: “Because you stand by your friends, especially when they have not even been charged with an offence.”
Great aspirations, David, but a little too simplistic for my liking. Suppose I have a friend who seems to be a regular, law-abiding citizen. (I’m not accustomed to associating with criminals or with people who lack principles or decent standards of behaviour.) Then I learn through the media that my friend is alleged to have committed a serious criminal offence. Let’s say smuggling drugs, or embezzling large sums from his/her employer, or burglary of an old woman’s home.
What would I do? Simply stand by my friend and publicly support him/her? Well, I’m not prepared to do just that, and leave my relationship to the whims of inscrutable Police prosecutors. Instead, I would discuss the matter with my friend and endeavour to establish in my own mind whether he/she was telling me the truth (usually not so difficult with a close friend) or whether circumstance surrounding the alleged incident had reached standards of behaviour that I simply wouldn’t want to be associated with. If I was not reasonably satisfied, it’s not as though I would be forced to continue my friendship with that person indefinitely.
Most of us in our normal lives don’t regard the presence or absence of serious criminal charges by the Police as a reliable criterion by which we choose our friends. But we all tend to make fundamental judgements and choices about our friends and close associates. Those judgements and choices may prove in time to be misplaced. If Henry and Kaye are satisfied with their friend Hughes on the basis of what they know of his alleged incident, that is their judgement and choice – and good on them. If others feel differently, that too is their prerogative – without themselves being put on public trial for their alleged lack of “loyalty”.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
AG is quite right on this occasion. The government did speak out of turn on the petrobras protesters, AND it could reasonably argued they influenced police operations.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
That was the same set of Petrobras protesters who were making a criminal nuisance of themselves and who were I note initially fronted by a dingo PR flunky until the focus groups indicated they were losing popular support and then swapped to a local PR flunky. I mean seriously, those Greenpeace Inc marketing gimps should fuck off back where they came from.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
The very same, expat. And it is the police’s job to stop them committing any offences. But the PM shouldn’t hold press conferences at which he basically tells the police to get on with it before the police have worked out if any offences are being committed … just as Labour MPs/candidates shouldn’t be telling the police to get on with charging/not charging their ex-colleague.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Wow, lofty, you seem a tad bit obsessed with this. I note you repeatedly refer to the 18 year old as a YOUTH (your caps). I can only guess that this is some attempt to equate YOUTH with BOY. Why else would you use the word youth? (and in caps no less). An 18 year old has all the rights of an ADULT.
Vote:June 7th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
bc – yes, but he is still a TEENAGER isn’t he.
Vote:June 8th, 2011 at 8:07 am
not commenting on whether the ginga did wrong or right but had a friend\colleague who had various accusations made against him that the police are honour bound to investigate. They took the better part of 18 months whilst this friend had to sit under the cloud of these accusations. There seemed to be little one could do about it. Attempting to pressurise the police to get off their proverbials was a risky affair as the intimation was – push too hard and they prosecute as it’s the easy answer for them – it really did seem the sub-text. He employed some expensive legal assistance to no avail as well.
It appears that there is little one can do to make the police pull finger. Luckilly, for the friend it finally got handed over to a different officer when someone within the police determined that they had too many open case files and this needed to be addressed. He closed it off immediately and stated (off the record of course) there never had been a case to answer. Didn’t help my friend at all.
Similarly, my wife was robbed by a couple of teenagers. That took the better part of 2 years to work through. In this case the ludicrous under age rules kicked in and there was no come back to the main (mega-) repeat offender.
but the point really is not whether the people are innocent or guilty. The point is that the process is much too long (sample of 2 – yes- but get talking to police and lawyers and this seems the norm) and the end result is either unfair treatment to the innocent or any victims.
Vote:June 8th, 2011 at 8:16 am
@bc, I am not obsessed just annoyed, and yes I am emphasising YOUTH, as the obsfucation line when it first occured was young man etc, as if it was to try and smooth out the wrongfulness of “whatever” occured in Kings house.
He may well have all the rights of an adult, but the fact of the matter is he is a teenager, still full of the joys of life, with a lot to learn. It “appears” that Hughes went from MP to teacher.
It is more the toothless attempt to direct the course of justice that annoys me, although any buggering with the Lad of course concerns me greatly and while I have no idea really who he is, I wish him all the best, after all no one else seems to give a hoot about his welfare do they.
Vote: