Arthur Allan Thomas

Arthur Allan Thomas (born 2 January 1938) is a New Zealand man who was wrongfully convicted twice of the murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe in June 1971. Thomas was raised on his parents' 272 acre farm at Mercer Ferry Road, near Pukekawa, eight miles away from the Crewe's farm. On 22 June 1970, police received a phone call describing the Crewe's bloodstained house. When police arrived, they found the Crewe's 18 month old baby, Rochelle in a neglected state, but no dead bodies. Subsequently, there was considerable speculation as to whether the baby had been fed in the five days before she was found.

Mrs Crewe's body was found in the Waikato River two months later with bullet wounds to the head. Mr Crewe's body was also found in the river about a month after that. Initially, the police suspected Jeannette's father, Lenard Demler, who lived alone, had no alibi, and was labelled by one police officer as a 'psycho.' However, when placed under pressure to solve the case more quickly, the police switched their attention on Mr Thomas.

At his trial, the Crown alleged Thomas, who was married at the time, was infatuated with Mrs Crewe, made his way to their farm house on a stormy night, and shot the couple with his .22 rifle in a fit of jealousy. Thomas said he was home with his wife, Vivien, and his cousin, Peter Thomas at the time of the murders. Vivien and Peter both corroborated his alibi.

Four months after the initial investigation, the police claimed they found a cartridge in the Crewe's garden which fitted the calibre of Thomas rifle and presented it as evidence at his trial that he was the murderer. He was found guilty, but appealed. He was retried in March 1973 and found guilty a second time. The case was controversial, and the subject of much speculation in the media. It was not until journalists Pat Booth and David Yallop conducted their own investigations and published books about the case that, nine years later, Adams-Smith, QC was appointed to conduct a further review. He wrote two reports, the second of which concluded the verdicts were unsafe. Following revelations that crucial evidence against him had been faked by the police, in 1979 Thomas was granted a Royal Pardon.

In 1980, the Government ordered a Royal Commission of Inquiry into his convictions which concluded that Detective Inspector Bruce Hutton and Detective Len Johnston were responsible for planting the cartridge in the garden to incriminate Thomas. Thomas was subsequently awarded NZ$950,000 in compensation for his 9 years in prison and loss of earnings.

In 2010, Rochelle Crewe, asked police to reopen the investigation in a bid to find out who killed her parents. The Police refused, but Deputy Commissioner, Rob Pope, agreed they would conduct a "thorough analysis and assessment of the Crewe homicide file in an endeavour to answer questions raised by Rochelle Crewe". The police report acknowledged mistakes had been made in the police investigation, but still suggested that Thomas was responsible. In May 2012, independent counsel to the police inquiry, David Jones, QC, submitted a 28-page report in which he describes the brass 22 cartridge case and agreed with Adams-Smith that the verdicts against Thomas were unsafe.