June 22, 2015
Sir Peter Williams
Sir Peter Williams
It’s not often that someone would acknowledge murderers and criminals as amongst their best friends however Sir Peter Williams QC who died last week never had any problems admitting to that. Mr Asia Terry Clark, Colonel Arapeta Awatere and Ron Jorgenson the Bassett Road machine gun murderer were people he counted as amongst his friends and the public were stunned that such a brilliant and qualified man could mix with some of the worst criminals in New Zealand. But Sir Peter saw things in these people that others failed to see and he was attracted to anyone who was an underdog in society.
I couldn’t understand his support sometimes particularly for scum buckets like Clark and Jorgensen however I was fascinated by his support for Awatere. The Colonel was one of the finest soldiers that this country has ever seen. Experts everywhere believed he should have won a Victoria Cross for his magnificent exploits as the leader of the Maori Battalion in World War II. But Maori soldiers sadly were not honoured properly and only one Maori received the Victoria Cross – Moana Ngarimu – despite the Maori Battalion being consistently hailed as the greatest fighting unit in World War II.
Sir Peter said Awatere was one of the greatest men he had ever met, he said he had it all – brains, courage, spirit and he considered it an honour to have represented him in court. Colonel Awatere was convicted for murder, but Sir Peter was adamant that he had been stitched up by a jury who didn’t know what they were doing. Unfortunately for him he wasn’t able to prove that, but that never stopped him in terms of giving his views on the case.
Sir Peter was admired by many of us in the Maori world because of his enduring support not just for Awatere but for Maori who he said were wronged by a racist legal system. Sir Peter represented all people and races but it was the underdogs in this country who really were the true beneficiaries of his work particularly Arthur Alan Thomas who was clearly framed for the murder of the Crewe's back in 1970 and who benefited from Sir Peters great advocacy. He believed that everyone deserved an opportunity no matter how vile their purported crime, which upset a lot of people. However Sir Peter was never one to worry about popularity contests he was one of this country’s greatest lawyers and we have lost one of our true heroes.
No reira e Te Rangatira Ta Pita moe mai moe mai ra.
WILLIE JACKSON SPEAKS WITH SIR PETER WILLIAMS QC AFTER RECEIVING HIS KNIGHTHOOD. THIS IS ONE OF THE LAST INTERVIEWS THAT HE CONDUCTED AND WAS BROADCAST ON RADIO WAATEA ON THE 14TH OF APRIL 2015
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