It is possible for the names of victims of crime to get lost among the names of the accused and the guilty. All too often the offenders’ names become etched in our minds, William Bell, RSA murders, Scott Watson, Ben Smart and Olivia Hope Malbrough Sounds murders, but how often do we remember the names of convicted people fighting for their innocence? I would suggest hardly ever.
Allan Hall will forever be remembered in Aotearoa for all the wrong reasons but will also be a name remembered for changing a broken system and standing up against the bullies that knowingly framed him for a murder that he had nothing to do with, simply so they could get a conviction.
The name Allan Hall meant nothing to me until one evening in 2022 there was a news article on TV describing how this wrongly convicted man had been fighting the system for 18 years and finally, only after non-government people got involved, his convictions were quashed by the supreme court, and he was now an innocent man.
Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with compassion for this person and even more overwhelmed with disgust for the police and the system, that had taken 18 innocent years of this man’s life.
Having had a family member wrongly convicted, the Allan Hall name stayed etched in my mind, eventually leading me to downloading the Grove Road podcast series produced by, journalist, Mike Wesley Smith.
There are eight parts to the series, and everyone is tainted with what only can be described as damming evidence of disgraceful police work and simply a broken system.
My Next five Blogs are going to be a breakdown for you all what actually happened in the investigation, showing everybody the unscrupulous manner in which the police proceeded to prosecute an innocent man and I am hoping that will also give you a clear understanding as to why I am petitioning parliament to initiate a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Allan Hall mess and bring those responsible to justice and change the current broken system in the process. Read and sign petition here.
Jackie Foster, CEO, Social Justice Aotearoa
Never heard of this guy.
Makes better reading than the endless Gaza which has zero interest for those who have been here for a few generations.
Really you have zero interest if you have been here for a few generations. Count me out on that. This is a major human rights issue and every one should be interest!
Do you not know of Pastor Martin Niemöller, and his poem?
‘first they came for the communists and I wasn’t one so I didn’t speak out, they they came for the socialists and I wasn’t one so I didn’t speak out…. and it goes on and on.
I know who Allan Hall is and the behaviour of the police over his case. Just one of many. The police never ever are called to account for their behaviour or very very rarely. The cops are probably still in the business doing people over. It is disgraceful.
I will read the forthcoming Blog posts with huge interest, and thanks for putting in the effort to highlight this injustice.
On a somewhat similar topic, the UK is racked at the moment about their Post Office wrongfully convicting since 1999 many contacted sub-postmasters for theft. It took a four-part ITV drama to get anyone in Westminster to pay any notice.
Too bad Alan Hall wasnt a nerdy classics major or a fat middle class kitchen sink salesman.