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Speaker 1: The lawyers representing the Park River families think police have

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Speaker 1: enough evidence to lay corporate manslaughter charges fifteen years after

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Speaker 1: the tragedy. Sonya rock House and Anna Osborne have called

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Speaker 1: a meeting with Brook van Velden a complete waste of time.

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Speaker 1: They were at Parliament this week. Sonya rock House sadly

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Speaker 1: lost her son Ben in the tragedy and joins me. Now, Sonya,

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Speaker 1: good morning, good morning, Sonya.

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Speaker 2: Well, they've always had enough evidence. Like before, when the

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Speaker 2: charges were first talked about with the they had enough

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Speaker 2: evidence way back then. So I don't know he could

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Speaker 2: a lot about it. Obviously, the police don't talk to

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Speaker 2: us about that stuff. So yeah, we just know that

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Speaker 2: there's been a whole lot of other evidence has been

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Speaker 2: gathered over the years. They did an extensive forensic scope

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Speaker 2: of the drift, spent several months doing that and.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Sonya, the problem was initially that their work

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Speaker 1: Safe was doing an investigation, weren't they They were looking

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Speaker 1: at charges and the police are looking at charges, and

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Speaker 1: the police went, oh, well we can't both charge them,

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Speaker 1: so you can do it, and then they did a deal.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct, So the police were going to charge

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Speaker 2: and then WorkSafe said they were going to charge, so

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Speaker 2: the police backed off and then WorkSafe walked away. So

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Speaker 2: nobody did it. So and the reason that they yes, exactly,

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Speaker 2: the reason that they did it was that Peter Whittle's

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Speaker 2: insurance company paid the family three point four one million

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Speaker 2: in exchange for the charges being dropped. So checkbook justice basically.

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Speaker 1: Sonya, do you know if there's any new evidence being

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Speaker 1: found or is this all old evidence?

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Speaker 2: I don't know. The police, Like I said, the police

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Speaker 2: haven't talked to us about it because anything you know

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Speaker 2: that we don't want to prejudice possible future prosecutions. So

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Speaker 2: I all I know is that over the last few years,

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Speaker 2: up until it was settled again, they collected lots and

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Speaker 2: lots of stuff to put forward to Crown, the Crown solicitor.

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Speaker 2: So you know, the police, like us, just have to

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Speaker 2: sit back and wait. Now they've done their job as

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Speaker 2: best as they can do it, and we've done everything

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Speaker 2: that we can and now we just have to sit

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Speaker 2: back and wait for the big decision for the prosecutors.

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Speaker 1: Now, it's been a few years since I've spoken to you, Sonya.

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Speaker 1: How are you doing? Are you ever at peace? I

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Speaker 1: saw your at Parliament the other day. Is this torture,

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Speaker 1: you know? Is this still torture every day for you?

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Speaker 2: No, it's not torture every day. Yesterday was a tough day.

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Speaker 2: Anna and I actually went up to Caate I think

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Speaker 2: it's Kate Shepherd Park in Wellington. Oh, yes, and there's

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Speaker 2: a seat up there that's been dedicated to Helen Kelly.

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Speaker 2: So we sat there just before the three point forty

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Speaker 2: four and then watched it, watch the time, and then

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Speaker 2: just tailed hands and closed our eyes and thought about

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Speaker 2: our men because of course we were away and that

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Speaker 2: felt really strange. But you know, we sort of took

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Speaker 2: solace in the fact that Anna and I were together,

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Speaker 2: which we normally are on the anniversary anyway, but just

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Speaker 2: not up in Wellington, up at Parliament. Yeah. I mean

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Speaker 2: it's been fifteen years. It still hurts every day. You know,

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Speaker 2: I've missed out on fifteen years of my son's life.

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Speaker 2: He was twenty one when he was killed and he

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Speaker 2: would now be thirty six. So yeah, I think it

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Speaker 2: still hurts. Of course, it hurts, but you learned, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's just it's just buried now, and on days like yesterday,

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Speaker 2: of course it comes out and we're still very very

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Speaker 2: passionate about, you know, getting truth, justice and accountability. That

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Speaker 2: will never go away. That passion is always there and

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Speaker 2: the pain as well. So the movie's definitely given us

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Speaker 2: a little bit of a list because you know, it's

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Speaker 2: we're very proud of it. I don't know whether you've

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Speaker 2: seen it or not, but I have.

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Speaker 1: I interviewed the director as well, and one of them, yes, yeah, no, no,

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Speaker 1: great movie, sonya. We have to leave it there. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for coming on, and best of luck with the

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Speaker 1: with the prosecutors. You know, I know your fingers and

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Speaker 1: totally crossed for that. For more from earlier edition with

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talk Set B from

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Speaker 1: five a m. Weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio