by Mike White
‘He’s our son. We love him. We know that it’s horrendous what he’s done but at the end of the day he’s still our son and the father of our four grandchildren. And what are you supposed to do? Do you walk away from your son because of what he’s done? Or do you stand beside him because you love him and want to support him through what he’s got to deal with?’
Just after the trial, the Macdonalds released a brief statement saying their son ‘has no words big enough to express his remorse or apologies’ for what he’d done and what he’d put Kylee and the Guys in particular through at the trial. And they specifically asked people to see past the spectacle of the courtroom and remember Scott and all those who were missing him.
The Macdonalds had always remained on good terms with the Guys, frequently speaking with them in the court’s lobby and sharing grandparent duties for Anna and Ewen’s children. As Peter Coles, who knew both the Guy and Macdonald families extremely well, put it, ‘They’re just two good families who didn’t deserve what’s happened to them.’
While the two families have little contact anymore, Kerry said he had only utter sympathy for how the Guys’ lives had been turned upside-down by one of the most horrible things that could have happened to them. And he could barely imagine their mixed feelings at the verdict.
For 14 months they’d been told by police that they’d got the right person and that once the trial was finished there would be finality and an end to their upheaval. ‘Then the truth came out in the trial and they are just sort of left hanging. They can’t go back and feel pally with Ewen. And they’re never going to get over it because he vandalised Kylee and Scott’s house and did all those horrible things, so they can pigeonhole Ewen as public enemy number one. And I wouldn’t expect them to feel any different, actually. And probably somewhere in their heart they think he did do it because of what they’ve been told. And they’ll have to find the murderer before they can click out of that way of thinking.’
To that end, the Macdonalds supported the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s review of the case, as long as it was objective and not guided by Kylee’s desire for revenge against Ewen. ‘Go for it, get into it,’ said Kerry, ‘because they’re not going to find Ewen did it, so hopefully they’ll succeed in finding the murderer.’
But he questioned what the police were doing, feeling they had wiped their hands of the case because they still believed they’d charged the right man. ‘I can’t accept that. They’re saying the system, the jury, the judge—you’re all wrong, we’re right. You’re the detectives, that’s what we employ you for, get out there, get off your arse and do your job.’
‘Good luck to them,’ added Marlene, ‘and I hope they do find something. The best thing for everyone would be for them to find the real killer. Because there are no winners in this.’
EPILOGUE
On Saturday, 3 November 2012, Greg King was found dead at the end of a quiet Newlands cul-de-sac, the waves and whitecaps of Wellington Harbour spread out below him. As police noted in the particular code they use on such occasions, there were no suspicious circumstances.
The shock that followed was filled with considerable confusion that someone who had such enthusiasm and zeal for life and those around him should die this way.
During Ewen Macdonald’s trial, King had been labelled ‘a jumped-up Harry Potter without the wand’, described as being ‘as full of himself as a Russian doll’, and told his courtroom performance was ‘too much LA Law and not enough acting classes’. Subsequently, he received a letter beginning thus: ‘Dear Sir, you are a fiend, a pirate, an unconscionable, contemptible, greedy, arrogant, proud, disgraceful, thoroughly contemptible, grimy, slimy perverse, twisted, evil little man.’ Normally, King ignored such abuse, but this time felt moved to respond. ‘[Sir], I resent that. I am not little! I am 6 foot 2 inches tall and 104KG. Regards, Greg.’
But after his death there was only an extraordinary outpouring of tributes, and reminders of just how much he’d achieved in his 43 years: three double murder cases taken to the Privy Council, 11 appearances in the Supreme Court, 350 jury trials and more than 200 appeals. Threaded through the numbers were tales of King’s skill, commitment and compassion. As well as being a brilliant orator, he was prepared to take on unpopular cases for people most would scorn. It was testament to King’s belief that everybody, no matter what they’d done, deserved the best defence possible. It was also indicative of his empathy for people who’d often had an upbringing like his, where not everything was perfect.
More than 800 people filled the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul for his funeral. There were cops and criminals, journalists and judges, lawyers, All Blacks, politicians and business moguls. Black Power members and Mongrel Mobsters sat a few pews apart. Many of those involved with Ewen Macdonald’s trial attended, including Sue Schwalger, court staff and reporters. Wellington’s district court was closed for several hours as a mark of respect.
Nobody offered any answers, just memories of King, his love of the law and the love they had for him. Among the speakers were cabinet minister Tony Ryall, judge William Young, great friend Robert Lithgow QC and King’s mentor, Judith Ablett-Kerr QC.
Senior Counsel Simon Moore noted how King ‘reviled unfairness or any kind of injustice’, something anyone who’d met King understood. Throughout his career he’d been guided by Martin Luther King Jr’s message from Birmingham Jail in 1963: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’
Perhaps some of the most moving thoughts came from King’s father, Jeff, who with rugged tenderness said he, his wife Jenny and Greg’s brother Jason were the luckiest people present. ‘We knew Greg for 43 years. I wouldn’t trade one second of those 43 years for this pain that I’ve got.’ Without notes he traversed King’s life and those he’d befriended along the way. ‘I can’t remember Greg making a poor choice until last Friday.’
Afterwards, many of King’s colleagues gathered at the Thistle Inn behind the High Court. There was lawyer Paul Surridge, who’d taken King under his arm when he shifted to Wellington as a novice barrister; Peter Coles, Liam Collins and Paul Bass, who’d worked with him on Macdonald’s case; Ben Vanderkolk and Paul Murray, who’d prosecuted that case; Christopher Stevenson, who’d accompanied King to the Privy Council; and Auckland barrister Barry Hart, whose career was on the rocks but who King had found the time to help and represent in the months before his death. Their presence was a mark of how highly King was thought of by everyone in the legal profession.
But it was perhaps those outside it, who’d at one stage been caught up in the justice system that threatened to overwhelm them, who owed King the most, the average and the ordinary, people he’d represented and supported and given hope to.
Above all, King believed deeply throughout his life that anyone accused of a crime needed someone in their corner who was prepared to battle to the ends of the earth for them. As King once put it, ‘I believe there is no greater sin that a state can commit than to wrongly convict and imprison an innocent person. And the enduring sense of injustice that that person must be going through, sitting in a prison cell in the middle of the night when they are innocent—it’s too sickening to even contemplate. So we’ve got to get it right.’
Ewen Macdonald was an experienced hunter who got his first shotgun when he was 10 years old. On one trip he carried two deer on his back for several hours on a rainy night before reaching camp because his fellow hunters were running short of food.
Ewen and Anna were married in 2001. Scott Guy (right) was Ewen’s best man and Nikki Guy (second from right) was Anna’s bridesmaid.
Ewen Macdonald was widely recognised as a hardworking and excellent farmer and in 2010 was runner up in regional farm manager awards.
Macdonald’s Scottish heritage and family were the two foundations of his life. He referred to the tattoo of his surname down his spine as his ‘backbone’ and added Anna’s name, and those of his four children as they were born.
Scott Guy is bu
ried in a cemetery near Feilding, his headstone surrounded by messages from Kylee and their sons, Hunter and Drover. (Mike White/ North & South)
The photo on the headstone: Scott’s cowboy hat was testament to the lifestyle he’d lived and loved.
(Mike White/North & South)
The second shotgun wad, which was overlooked by police and searchers for more than two days.
The crime scene. (Mike White/North & South)
This photograph is taken approximately where the killer fired from, hitting Scott as he opened the driveway gates. (Mike White/North & South)
Police reconstructed Scott’s movements on the morning he was shot, including driving to the gate. Even with the lights on high beam, the area to the right of the gates, where the killer is said to have hidden, remained in darkness.
Ewen Macdonald’s defence team: co-counsel Peter Coles (left), barrister Greg King (centre) and junior counsel Liam Collins. The trio worked for more than a year on what initially seemed to be an unwinnable case.
(Mike White/North & South)
After the verdict, inquiry head Detective Inspector Sue Schwalger fronted media outside the court, maintaining no stone had been left unturned during their investigation. (Mike White/North & South)
Bryan Guy gave a moving speech following the trial, supported by daughter Anna (centre) and wife Jo. He had displayed remarkable composure and compassion throughout the police investigation and the trial. (Marty Melville/Getty Images)
Kerry and Marlene Macdonald always believed in their son’s innocence but the verdict wasn’t a time for celebration, knowing the Guys had lost a son and everyone’s lives had been forever changed. (Mike White/North & South)
Following the trial and Ewen Macdonald’s sentencing, both Kylee Guy and Anna Guy sold their stories to Woman’s Day. (Photos courtesy of Woman’s Day)
Greg King was already one of New Zealand’s most successful lawyers. But his defence of Ewen Macdonald, hailed as a courtroom masterclass, made him a household name. (Mike White/ North & South)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, there are many people responsible for taking a book from concept to completion. My enormous thanks to North & South editor Virginia Larson and Allen & Unwin commissioning publisher Richard Walsh for getting the project off the ground, and to the staff at Allen & Unwin who’ve gently shepherded the book and me through the production process.
This book was the idea of Greg King, among others. It wouldn’t have been written without his encouragement and openness. Huge thanks to Catherine Milnes, Peter and Karen Coles, Liam Collins and Paul Bass who welcomed me into the defence team.
Likewise Kerry and Marlene Macdonald have shown extraordinary trust and candidness.
And most importantly to Nik—thanks for all your patience and support ever since I took on this story. I owe you a summer.
Mike White
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike White is a senior writer at North & South magazine in New Zealand. Prior to joining the magazine he worked as a journalist in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Kuwait, and covered the Iraq war in 2003.
He spent more than a year tracking Ewen Macdonald’s defence team as it prepared its case, and was present throughout the five-week trial in 2012. Since then he has written two extensive stories on the case for North & South.
At the 2013 Canon Media Awards he won the Magazine Feature Writer of the Year award for a portfolio including these stories. He was also awarded New Zealand’s most prestigious journalism award, the Wolfson Fellowship to study at Cambridge University.