Beyond Reasonable Doubt? Unraveling the Controversial Conviction of Scott Watson

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[00:00:29] Serial napper to get your episodes ad free and enjoy uninterrupted storytelling while you get your naps in sweet dreams The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records court documents witness statements and the news

[00:00:45] Listener discretion is advised all parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty and all opinions are my own Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young and this is serial napper the true crime podcast for naps

[00:01:18] I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep or perhaps to give you nightmares before dawn break on New Year's Day 1998 21 year old Ben smart and 17 year old Olivia Hope we're looking for a place to crash after spending the evening

[00:01:34] Celebrating with other partygoers in the Melborough sounds in New Zealand They were last seen getting out of a water taxi and boarding a yacht after a strange man Offered them a place to sleep off the champagne on board his boat Not the greatest of decisions

[00:01:50] But they really needed a place to sleep because other partygoers had already taken their place that they had originally booked Ben and Olivia would never be seen again and their bodies and belongings have never been found

[00:02:04] What followed was a five-month long investigation into a man named Scott Watson Who the police believed was the strange man who had offered up his yacht? however, the investigation was rife with accusations of prejudice and police incompetence while Scott Watson maintained his innocence

[00:02:24] This was a case based solely on circumstantial evidence and statements given by jailhouse informants highly controversial particularly in a high-profile double murder case like this one Yet it was enough to convict Scott and to sentence him to life behind bars Which he has spent the last 26 years fighting

[00:02:46] So dim the lights put your phone down and listen to the story of Scott Watson who believes the case against him was a mistrial of justice and he just finished his last bid for freedom

[00:02:59] Which was full of shocking accusations against the people who are supposed to protect us So let's jump right in 21 year old Ben smart and 17 year old Olivia. Hope were great friends, though They previously were much more the young couple had once dated

[00:03:17] However for New Year's Eve in 1997 they decided to celebrate as friends at Fernell Lodge Located in the Endeavor inlet of the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand a picturesque collection of valleys and islands overtaken by the seawater

[00:03:34] The lodge itself was only accessible by boat and they had booked bunks on a yacht where they could crash once the party was over Ben was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life

[00:03:45] But in the meantime, he had decided to take on a job working for his father Olivia had just graduated from high school and she had plans to attend Otago University on a scholarship The future looked bright

[00:03:59] There was much to look forward to in the new year and there was no better way to celebrate than at this big New Year's Eve bash attended by more than 1,500 people Even after the clock stroke midnight the party continued into the early morning hours

[00:04:16] Everyone was having a great time and the alcohol was flowing It wasn't until around 4 a.m When they decided that it was probably time to get some sleep Ben and Olivia had bunks reserved on a chartered yacht called Tamarack

[00:04:31] But they discovered that people had already taken their bunks so they'd have to find somewhere else to sleep They got on a water taxi that was passing by taking guests back and forth between the lodge and the boats sitting in the bay

[00:04:45] This water taxi was driven by a lodge bartender named Guy Wallace and it had three other passengers on board two women and a man who appeared to be by himself this man offered Ben and Olivia a spot to sleep on his yacht and

[00:05:01] Reluctantly, they agreed. They didn't have much of a choice at this point and there were two of them So they kind of felt a sense of security going together According to Wallace he dropped Ben Olivia and this unknown man off at what he claimed to be his yacht

[00:05:16] Before bringing the other two individuals to their own boat and that is the last time Ben and Olivia were ever seen again The following morning the families of Ben and Olivia were shocked to find them both missing

[00:05:31] They decided to take the day to ask around and check with some of their other friends who were also at the party To just find out where they were last seen

[00:05:39] It was a huge party after all maybe Ben and Olivia were somewhere just sleeping off a hangover on January 2nd when there was still no sign of Ben or Olivia their parents reported them as missing to the police Their absence was treated as highly suspect because it was

[00:06:00] Completely out of their character to just disappear and not communicate with their families But it wasn't long before this missing person search turned into a possible homicide investigation code named

[00:06:12] Operation Tam which was short for Tamarack the name of the yacht that they had originally booked those bunks on The police searched the water for their bodies or any sign of their possessions The thought was maybe they had accidentally fallen overboard, but nothing was ever found

[00:06:31] Investigators had a ton of people that they needed to speak to to get statements from there were over 1,500 guests at the party so someone must have seen something that might help One of the witnesses that they spoke to was Guy Wallace

[00:06:47] The lodge employee who was driving the water taxi that evening and they learned that Wallace was one of the last people To see the young couple alive

[00:06:56] Police were also able to quickly identify the other two individuals who had been aboard the water taxi when Ben and Olivia hopped on And they were able to clear them. They were not suspects in this case But now they needed to identify the man

[00:07:11] The one who appeared to be by himself and had offered Ben and Olivia a place to stay on his yacht Wallace described this yacht as being a wooden two-masted catch about 38 to 40 feet long with a blue stripe running along the hull which this description

[00:07:30] it was supported by the other witnesses on the water taxi that evening as For the unknown man who claimed to own the yacht that Ben and Olivia would be staying on He was described as being scruffy with maybe two days of beard growth on his face

[00:07:45] He was around 5 9 tall with short dark wavy hair and possibly arm tattoos He was wearing a Levi's shirt with jeans and he had been seen at the party earlier in the evening sitting at the lounge bar

[00:08:00] investigators seemed to hone in on one man in particular who they believe is that stranger who offered up his yacht to Ben and Olivia a Local man named Scott Watson who had a pretty extensive criminal record

[00:08:14] His crimes were mostly petty and they were committed during his teen years His record showed a history of theft Possession of cannabis and an assault that had landed him in jail for a few years

[00:08:27] But Scott had maintained that he had gotten his life together and he cleaned up his act It had been eight years since he was released from prison and he said he had learned his lesson

[00:08:38] He didn't want to commit crimes and he didn't want to go back to jail Still was this the reason that he was picked out so early on in the investigation? We can only speculate because he didn't seem to match any of the witness statements

[00:08:53] Scott Watson did own a yacht that was parked in the Marlboro Sounds that evening but it was a single masted boat named blade not a two masted catch that had been described by both Wallace and another guest on the water taxi and

[00:09:08] The blade did not have that blue stripe that was noted on the other yacht Multiple witnesses reported that they had seen that two masted catch anchored in the water that evening

[00:09:19] But the police didn't seem to believe that such a boat was even there the night of the party Later on a retired officer who had been close to the case Revealed that they were actually instructed to ignore any reported sightings of a two masted catch

[00:09:35] They simply were not interested in finding this boat and they kind of talked like it didn't even exist that they didn't believe This was a real yacht that was there. There was another problem

[00:09:46] Scott was also clean-cut while the strange mystery man in the water taxi was described as scruffy Scott was also much shorter than the stated height of the mystery man Still investigators believed that Scott Watson could be their man

[00:10:03] They included his photo in a lineup that was shown to Wallace and Wallace didn't pick out any of the men shown to him as the unidentified man in the water taxi So investigators decided to change things up a bit They show Wallace a different photo lineup

[00:10:18] But this time they include a photo of Scott Watson where he has his eyes half closed Which made him appear as if he had droopy eyes this photo would be forever known as the blink photo a

[00:10:31] Big point of contention because it wasn't an accurate depiction of how Scott Watson actually looked this mystery man This stranger that hadn't been identified had been described as having these kind of droopy eyes Scott Watson did not but in this particular photo where his eyes were half closed

[00:10:49] That's kind of the way it looked in this photo lineup Wallace says that the man in the blink photo looks like it could be the same man who was on the boat

[00:10:58] But added that while the eyes were the same as the man he saw that night. The hair was definitely different It was short and tidy while the man who was in the water taxi had longer shaggy hair

[00:11:12] Still this was enough for the police to get a warrant for Scott Watson's boat and his family homes To many it seemed like a wild goose chase Those who knew Scott Watson and his family felt like investigators were trying to make the pieces fit when they just didn't

[00:11:32] Officers on the case have been accused of surveilling Scott and his family without the appropriate permissions Including tapping the phone line in the Watson family home They even utilized Scott Watson's girlfriend at the time to try to get information out of him

[00:11:47] Recording over 70 hours of phone conversations where Scott said absolutely nothing incriminating Most shocking there were even disgusting rumors that began to circulate around the community that implied that Scott Watson was having an incestuous relationship with his sister, which was

[00:12:06] Absolutely false. It seemed like a total smear campaign and many believed that the police were behind many of the rumors Five months after Ben and Olivia had gone missing in June of 1998 Scott Watson was arrested for their murders

[00:12:24] Their bodies had not been found at this point. In fact, they've never been found Scott's trial wouldn't begin until a year later and it would last a total of 11 weeks with more than

[00:12:34] 500 witnesses called to the stand. The prosecution alleged that Scott Watson had his eyes set on Olivia So he lured her and Ben onto his boat the blade where he killed them both and then

[00:12:47] Disposed of their bodies before he moved on you would think this would be a difficult feat Considering the blade did not match the description of the boat that Olivia and Ben were last seen getting on with that strange man

[00:12:59] Yet this is the story that the prosecution gave to the jury There was another water taxi driver out that night who testified that he had dropped Scott Watson off at his boat the blade Sometime between the hours of 2 a.m. And 4 a.m

[00:13:16] Remember Ben and Olivia had been dropped off at a yacht with the mystery man in Wallace's water taxi at around 4 a.m So the timeline is a bit confusing Especially because Scott Watson's timeline was backed up by witnesses who were sleeping on neighboring boats

[00:13:32] Who claimed that they were woken up when Scott returned to the blade because he was loud Drunk and he wanted to keep the party going So we know for sure that Scott was dropped off at the blade sometime between 2 a.m. And 4 a.m

[00:13:47] Scott Watson claimed he ultimately went to bed after returning to his boat however The prosecution alleged that he returned to the shore at some point and then got on the water taxi that was driven by Wallace Where he would meet Ben and Olivia

[00:14:02] They weren't able to provide any evidence of this and there weren't any water taxi drivers who step forward to say that they had picked Scott Watson up from the blade and had taken him back to shore at any point that night

[00:14:14] But the prosecution argued that it didn't matter how Scott Watson got back to shore just that he did It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors. Hang on. I'll be back before you know it

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[00:16:13] Redeem your 50% off at Rosetta Stone .com slash today today Now back to our story The prosecution also presented the photo lineup as evidence where water taxi driver Wallace had pointed out the blink photo of Scott Watson the photo where he had his eyes half closed

[00:16:37] They presented this like Wallace had positively identified Scott Watson as the man that he dropped off along with Ben and Olivia But it should be noted that after the trial was finished

[00:16:49] Wallace himself stepped forward to say that he was misled by the police and he believes that Scott Watson was innocent The way that his eyes were half closed in that specific photo made him look somewhat like the mystery man

[00:17:04] But his other features including his hair his height and a stature they were completely different There had been another lodge employee who also identified Scott Watson from the blink photo lineup But she too recanted and even signed an affidavit that stated that she had misidentified him

[00:17:24] Other evidence presented at trial included two human hairs that were recovered from a blanket aboard Scott Watson's boat Now here is where things get a little bit messy when the blanket was first examined There were around 400 fairs found on this blanket mostly short black little hairs

[00:17:44] There weren't any hairs identified that looked like Olivia's long blonde hair However later in the lab, there would be two long blonde hairs found on that blanket The hair allegedly belonged to Olivia

[00:17:59] However, there were serious issues with the way that the hair had been recovered and stored which could have caused cross-contamination The defense team argued that Olivia's hair that was actually taken from a brush for testing purposes

[00:18:13] It was not kept separate from the hair recovered from the blanket and that they could have easily been mixed up They were kept on a table together It was also learned that there was a one centimeter hole found in the evidence bag that contained Olivia's hair

[00:18:28] Meaning that this hair could have fallen out onto the blanket Cross-contamination was a real possibility Other than this alleged hair There was no other evidence found on Scott Watson's boat that was connected to either

[00:18:41] Olivia or Ben and you'd think if they were on this boat if they had been murdered there there would be some evidence The prosecution also had photos of scratch marks that were found on the foam rubber inside of a hatch on Scott's boat

[00:18:55] The photos of these scratches really painted a picture to the jury One could easily imagine Olivia trying to scratch the hatch in an attempt to break free It's terrifying to think about but it's simply not true

[00:19:11] The scratch marks were found on portions of the foam that were only accessible when the hatch was open not closed There would be no need to create these scratch marks on the foam in an attempt to get out if the hatch was already open

[00:19:25] So the idea that they were caused by Olivia trying to escape it just didn't make sense Scott claimed that the scratch marks they were actually created by his young nieces who were just playing around on his boat and

[00:19:39] Then we need to talk about the statements given by two jailhouse informants Thankfully, we don't see these kinds of statements holding weight at many trials today because they're extremely problematic but in 1999 in this trial the prosecution treated their accounts like they were extremely credible

[00:20:01] both informants testified that they had met Scott Wallace while in prison and That he had told them that he killed Ben Smart and Olivia Hope Later on once the trial was over the first informant recanted his story and admitted that he had lied

[00:20:18] At the time that he was approached by investigators in jail for this case His life was being threatened by other inmates So he was hoping that by giving a statement he might get out of prison earlier saving his life

[00:20:32] That's a good reason for him to make this whole thing up The second informant later admitted that he hardly knew Scott Watson Despite claiming that the two had a deep friendship while on the stand

[00:20:44] He also admitted that he was given a car and a cell phone to use once he was released from prison by the police in exchange for this testimony So basically we can toss both of their false statements right out of the window

[00:20:59] Unfortunately this bit of information that they had Made the whole thing up. It wouldn't be revealed until after the trial was over and a verdict was already made

[00:21:10] There were also three witnesses called to the stand who had previous interactions with Scott Watson in the years prior to Ben and Olivia's Disappearance these witnesses claimed that Scott Watson was an angry man who had a hatred towards women according to these three individuals

[00:21:28] Scott had expressed a desire to kill people in the past With one witness pointing to an occasion when he had allegedly said he would have killed a woman who had annoyed him at a hotel This happened about a year before the New Year's Eve incident

[00:21:43] The crown alleged that his past commentary made him the perfect suspect for the murder of a young woman Do with these statements what you will

[00:21:53] At the end of the day you have the witness statements from those who were on the water taxi with Ben Olivia and the mystery man And their description of the yacht didn't match the description of Scott Watson's boat

[00:22:07] neither does their description of this mystery man who was described as scruffy looking with long hair and Both witnesses who picked Scott Watson out of the photo lineup when the blink photo was presented

[00:22:19] Both of them later signed affidavits saying that they did not believe that Scott Watson was the mystery man That instead they felt pressured and confused by the fact that he had his eyes half closed Beyond that you have the hair that the prosecution

[00:22:35] Alleges is Olivia's which was found on a blanket on Scott's boat But again, there are issues around the validity of that evidence as well and whether cross-contamination may have happened Still in September 1999 the jury found Scott Wallace guilty of the murders of Ben smart and Olivia Hope

[00:22:55] He was given a life sentence with a minimum 17 year non-parole Scott maintained his innocence the entire time and when the guilty verdict was read out loud. He said to the jury You're wrong He has been trying to have his conviction overturned ever since

[00:23:14] Claiming that he had never even met Ben or Olivia that night at the party. The two never even crossed paths in April and May of the year 2000 Scott's defense team took his case to the Court of Appeals

[00:23:27] But they did not recommend a second trial because there wasn't any new evidence presented in 2003 his defense team took his case to the Privy Council, but they did not find any grounds for an appeal in 2009 Scott petitioned the governor-general for a royal pardon, but it was denied in

[00:23:48] 2015 Scott was finally up for parole But his parole is denied after he fails a drug test and he's deemed a very high risk of Committing violent acts if you were to be released from prison

[00:24:00] In total he would be denied parole four times for a crime that he says he did not commit in 2016 Scott Watson had the opportunity to have a sit-down face-to-face meeting with Gerald Hope who is Olivia's father

[00:24:17] Gerald had expressed concerns over the way the investigation into his daughter's disappearance was handled by police Gerald has never believed that the full truth what happened that New Year's Day has ever been revealed the following year 2017 a second application for a royal pardon was filed

[00:24:38] Based on the validity of the two hairs that were found on the blanket believed to have belonged to Olivia The application was once again rejected however in June 2020 Scott Watson's case was once again referred to the Court of Appeals and

[00:24:55] Again, his case centers on the reliability of that hair testing the grounds for his appeal are as follows There's the reliability of DNA evidence specifically hairs that were thought to belong to hope and recovered from Watson's boat

[00:25:11] Mistakes by the police in using a photo montage as a means of identifying Watson the montage contained a new photo that showed Watson caught halfway through a blink this gave the appearance of hooded eyes a characteristic of this mystery man's description

[00:25:29] His appeal has taken place just this past month during a five-day hearing Scott Watson has not asked for a retrial because there isn't any new evidence That's been discovered and the evidence that was presented at his original trial

[00:25:44] Really should have been tossed out due to possible contamination those hairs Also one of the star witnesses the water taxi driver Guy Wallace. He's no longer alive So he can't even give his statements He took his life in March 2021

[00:26:00] Shortly before he was about to stand trial on charges of indecent assault against a teenage girl Wallace was accused of touching her breasts when she was just 13 years old

[00:26:11] Putting a vibrator down her top when she was 15 and then once again touching her breasts when she was 15 years old He denied all of the accusations in his suicide note And he also wrote about how he felt immense pressure by the police to identify Scott Watson

[00:26:28] Despite the fact that he did not believe Scott was the man. He saw that night taking Ben and Olivia to his boat Wallace also believed that if he did not point to Scott as the person the police were going to turn on him and accuse

[00:26:43] Him of being the killer because they were just that desperate to have the case solved Scott Watson is now 52 years old and he has spent half of his life behind bars trying to clear his name

[00:26:57] His appeals hearing has now concluded and now we're just waiting to see whether or not he will die in prison Or get a second chance at life. I Think the saddest part about this whole situation is that the victims Ben smart and Olivia

[00:27:14] Hope they have never been found their families still have no idea what happened to them and Truthfully, I don't think it's clear who hurt them either The fast focus on Scott Watson as the sole suspect means that a thorough

[00:27:31] Investigation was never conducted. They focused in on him very quickly and they only searched him When he was arrested there were still hundreds of witnesses who needed to be interviewed When there were reported sightings of that two masted catch with a blue stripe on the hall

[00:27:50] Those sightings quite literally went ignored when they could have possibly led to a resolution of this case There were more than 1,500 people at that New Year's Eve party to say that Scott Watson was the only man with motive and opportunity

[00:28:07] It's just simply false because they didn't interview everyone unfortunately, the officers in this case seemed to have had a gut feeling that Scott Watson was responsible and then they built their entire case Specifically around that theory they had blinders on tunnel vision in

[00:28:27] 2016 there was a confidential report that was leaked to the New Zealand Herald written by the Maritime Research Group and in it it Seemingly solved the mystery of what happened to Ben smart and Olivia Hope it

[00:28:40] Included a distant and grainy photo of a woman who appears to be Olivia Taken five days after the investigators alleged that she and Ben were killed by Scott Watson

[00:28:52] So this photo it kind of does look like Olivia which would mean that she was still alive after New Year's Day Meaning that Scott Watson did in fact not kill her

[00:29:02] The report identifies the catch with the two sails and the three individuals who are connected to the boat All of which have lengthy criminal records involving cocaine According to this report this catch was used for drug smuggling

[00:29:18] This report and the claims made in it have been ignored by the police Which is unfortunate because there were witnesses you came forward after the duo disappeared With sightings of both Olivia and that boat that she and Ben were alleged to have boarded that night

[00:29:36] At this point it does not seem likely that we will ever know the truth of it all Whether Ben and Olivia are still alive or what really happened to them and who did it?

[00:29:48] One thing that I do feel strongly about is that Scott Watson did not get a fair trial Investigators had tunnel vision very early on and sadly that comes at the expense of the truth

[00:30:01] I'll be following this story closely as we wait to hear whether or not Scott will have his conviction overturned in the meantime I'd love to hear what you think

[00:30:10] Do you believe that Scott Watson is connected to the disappearance of Ben smart and Olivia Hope or what really happened here? Did he get a fair trial? Let me know what you think

[00:30:21] That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out you can find me on facebook at serial napper I also have a serial napper true crime discussion group. It's called serial society and I'll have the link in my shoutouts

[00:30:33] I'd love to chat with you about this case and all of the other cases that I cover plus anything else going on in true Crime, you can find my audio on Apple Spotify

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[00:30:58] I'm over on X formerly known as Twitter at Serial underscore napper and I post things on tick-tock at serial napper Nick and that's all one word until next time Sweet dreams. Stay kind especially in the comments Bye