7 Oct 2020

Gail Maney case: Corrections officer claims he was impersonated

From Morning Report, 7:41 am on 7 October 2020

A former Corrections Officer says someone impersonated him to fabricate a key piece of evidence used to help knock back Gail Maney's appeal against her murder conviction.

Maney is on life parole, convicted of ordering a hit on West Auckland man Deane Fuller-Sandys, who was presumed drowned for a decade and then drawn into an elaborate police case involving two murders.

Maney's 2005 Court of Appeal bid was knocked back - partly on the grounds she may have colluded with prosecution witness Tania Wilson and 'cooked up' a story with her while they were in the same prison in 2000.

But new evidence shows the guard never made the call and the women had no opportunity to interact in prison.

Investigative journalist Guyon Espiner has been digging back into the Gail Maney case and filed this report.