Martin Doutre’s BSA complaint against Maori TV

 Native Affairs reporter Iulia Leilua ‘framing’ Martin Doutré beside
the standing stone on Mt Albert on the morning of the autumn equinox.

Along with Mike Butler and a teacher who prefers to remain anonymous, Martin Doutré has also lodged a formal BSA complaint against Maori TV for their cynically-titled Native Affairs hatchet jobs “Tall Tales” and “What Lies Beneath”.

As expected, the channel is struggling to put together a credible response. Both Mike and the teacher have had letters from Maori TV extending their 20-working-days deadline by a further 20 working days.

(Yes, they are legally entitled to do this. And yes, it would also have been nice if they’d apologised for the delay. But apologies, it seems, are the sole prerogative of the Pakeha.)

Below is Martin’s complaint. I’ve added photos and captions.

___________________________

Date: June 6^th 2014

To: Paora Maxwell
Chief Executive
Maori TV
P.O. Box 113-017
Newmarket
Auckland 1149

Attn. Vienna.Richards@maoritelevision.com

From: Martin Doutré
[address]
[phone number]
[email address]

Re:       Broadcasting Standards Authority complaint about What lies beneath (screened on consecutive weeks).

Dear Sir or Madam,

On Tuesday, 4^th of February 2014 I was invited to participate in a Native Affairs, Maori Television programme and to express my views on the following main topics raised by Iulia Leilua (convenor):

Martin Doutré

• Why he thinks Allan Titford is innocent

• Why he believes Te Roroa’s claim on his land was fraudulent

• How the Maori stories of Patupaiarehe and Turehu prove that Maori weren’t the first settlers of NZ

• An explanation of one of the ancient observatory sites he’s studied (Stockade Hill??)

• Why he continues his work despite heavy criticism from NZ’s leading academics

• If he’s right, what this means in terms of Maoridom’s place in NZ

• Also what it’d mean for the Treaty settlement process

• What impact Martin Doutré’s theories would have on Maori treaty claims if they were widely accepted

• Why it’s important for Maori and wider NZ to be aware of Martin’s research.

Despite my misgivings that the true intention of Native Affairs was to do a hatchet job on my work and integrity, but after receiving assurances from Iulia Leilui of fair and balanced reporting, I decided to give Maori Television the benefit of the doubt and participate.

In accordance with Iulia’s specific requests, I planned out an itinerary of archaeological sites that we would visit on the 21^st of March, 2014 (the Autumn equinox), where I could demonstrate accurate equinoctial fixes on the rising and setting sun, as determined from ancient solar observatories constructed by a pre-Maori people.

Martin Doutré on Mt Albert with one of many standing stone observatories
placed on the hills around Auckland by pre-Maori people. From this spot, twice
a year only, the  ancients could observe the sun rising in line with the trench they
had cut in Mt Wellington (behind) — their spring/autumn equinox marker.

To further aid Iulia in accurately reporting my views and evidence, I presented the itinerary to her in book form, complete with historical quotes related to the Patu-paiarehe people, as well as explanations and photos of archaeological sites to be visited.

The tour extended throughout an entire day, commencing before sunrise and finishing after sunset.

In the course of that long day, spanning about 14 hours of interim filming and interviews, I was agreeable to answer any and all questions that Iulia wished to ask.

I also participated at my own expense, providing all materials and gasoline for the extended tour to archaeological sites, scattered around the Auckland isthmus, at no cost whatsoever to Maori Television.

A lone piper on the Stockade Hill observatory as the sun sets in a trench
cut on Mt Wellington as an equinoctial marker. On the day we went out with
Maori TV, cloud prevented a clean shot, but the reporter had seen this photo.

Native Affairs/Maori Television later chose to misrepresent my integrity as a person, my research and views, in a clear breach of Standards 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Broadcasting Act, 1989.

Standard 4 states:

“When discussing controversial issues of public importance in news, current affairs or factual programmes, broadcasters should make reasonable efforts, or give reasonable opportunities, to present significant points of view either in the same programme or in other programmes within the period of current interest.”

Far from airing my views in a balanced and fair manner, as promised, Native Affairs/Maori Television cherry-picked only a very selective and short segment of footage from the comprehensive interviews I provided, sufficient to show what the enemy looked like and little else.

In my stead, they substituted in lengthy diatribes from a sizable group of known adversaries, hostile to my archaeological work or documented research about the Treaty of Waitangi.

Paul Moon, and later both Scott Hamilton and Ranginui Walker, have not, to my knowledge, ever visited the archaeological sites that I demonstrated to the Native Affairs/Maori Television crew, nor do they have any known expertise related to the cultural symbolism, pictograms or known forensic attributes associated with obelisks of those sites.

The sole participation of these professional naysayers centred on unfairly debunking, without any substantiating evidence whatsoever from their quarter, my tangible, observable, scientific evidence of archaeological and historical anomalies, which were certainly worthy of serious consideration in the public arena.

These adversarial commentators instead engaged in ad hominem attacks against me personally, in lieu of any counter-evidence, inferring that I was, in fact, harbouring a hidden political agenda, hostile to Maori interests.

Their clear intention in pushing this conspiracy theory was to incite suspicion, distrust, racial hatred and derision towards me personally, thereby distracting attention away from the inconvenient scientific issues that I raised.

Far from the public having any opportunity to view my archaeological evidence and have its merits debated scientifically in an open forum, it was deliberately withheld and not shown.

In the itinerary booklet I provided for Iulia, I included many direct quotes from Maori oral traditions related to the “uru-kehu – kiri-puwhero” pre-Maori people.

These quotes have come from the learned elders of yesteryear themselves, and are copiously interspersed throughout our old history books, Native Land Court Minute Books, etc.

The many hundreds of references that issued forth from Maori oral tradition sources existed before I was born and constituted historical information available to generations of New Zealanders since the dawn of the colonial era.

Despite this, the Native Affairs programme deliberately represented this pre-Maori inhabitants’ concept as something I had conjured up out of my own imagination, as if it was some form of new, heretofore unheard of, revisionist history.

Maori activist Justin Taua went so far as to call me and others being unfairly maligned and misrepresented on the Native Affairs programme “revisionists”.

This was further substantiated by Paul Moon, who, amongst other things said, “There’s a risk of some of these strange ideas almost becoming mainstream.”

My question to each of them would be:

Why are you calling me a “revisionist” when I still believe the history I was taught as a child from our history books, or the information I gleaned directly from learned Maori elders themselves in my adolescence or latter years?

I have never changed my historical views, whereas Paul Moon and Justin Taua are, by their own words, now in denial about this aspect of our long-term, well-recorded history.

I would ask them to please explain the meaning of a couple of sample quotes, out of the hundreds I could provide from our history books.

From Tuwharetoa by Rev. John Grace, chapter 7, page 115:

“Generally speaking, Ngati Hotu were of medium height and of light colouring. In the majority of cases they had reddish hair. They were referred to as urukehu.

It is said that during the early stages of their occupation of Taupo they did not practice tattooing as later generations did, and were spoken of as te whanau a rangi (the children of heaven) because of their fair skin.

There were two distinct types. One had a kiri wherowhero or reddish skin, a round face, small eyes and thick protruding eyebrows. The other was fair-skinned, much smaller in stature, with larger and very handsome features.

The latter were the true urukehu and te whanau a rangi. In some cases not only did they have reddish hair, but also light coloured eyes.”

Hone Grace had a European father and Maori (Tuwharetoa) mother.

From The Maori Race, by Edward Tregear, pp. 562-563:

“The Maoris used to pay great respect to the bones of their dead, yet here and there may be found among sandhills, etc., human remains uncovered by the wind, and of these no tradition remains, as there would certainly be if the relics were those of ancestors.

The natives say, “These are the bones of strangers.” So also mortuary-caves are found concerning the contents of which the Maoris make the same remark, and regard them with indifference.”

Neither Paul Moon, Justin Taua or Scott Hamilton are in the least qualified to comment about my well-researched views or the tangible archaeological evidence I provided to Native Affairs/Maori Television.

By their own dismissive commentary, they are obviously ignorant concerning the oral traditions related to the Patu-paiarehe, Turehu, Pakepakeha, Ngati Hotu, Ngati Hinewai, Ngati Kura, Ngati Korakorako, Waitaha, Moriori, etc., etc., (and myriad of other named, pre-Maori groups) spoken about, seemingly, by every iwi in New Zealand.

Even Iulia Leilua, who claims Tuwharetoa lineage, appears to be ignorant or in denial of this dynamic history, as recounted by her own iwi, even though she has had direct contact with Monica Matamua who has testified to being, with evidence, of pre-Maori lineage.

If Paul Moon, Scott Hamilton, Justin Taua, Iulia Leilua or others wish to diminish the mana of the learned elders of past generations and call them liars (or worse), then they’re free to do so.

However, I would surmise that the wharewaananga-trained tohunga of past ages would consider ignorant, modern day, empty-vessel, pontificating pretenders, who knew nothing of these histories, simply as pokokohua and of no worth whatsoever, except as food.

I choose to believe the words of the learned elders of yesteryear over those of grievance-industry-aligned revisionist historians such as Paul Moon or radical Trotskyites like Scott Hamilton, etc., pushing their own political agendas.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel: Maori TV’s expert witness, Trotskyite
blogger Scott Hamilton, whose idea of civilised discourse once included
posting a photo of your host captioned “Lizard man John Ansell”.

The Native Affairs/Maori Television presentation grouped me into a batch-lot of people who were referred to as “anti-Treaty and anti-Maori”.

They wrote:

“In part one of this special report, former Northland farmer Allan Titford was portrayed in the media as a man under siege. 

His supporters included people who were anti-Treaty and anti-Māori, many of whom continue to use their money, time and political connections to push their agendas.”

This accusation was reaffirmed by Mihingarangi Forbes in her introductory comments, as well as by Paul Moon, who categorised the grouped batch of individuals under attack from Maori Television as being part of a “subversive organisation” with “another agenda”.

Moon claimed that this so-called “subversive organisation”, of which I was inferred to be a part, “wanted to deny anything to do with the treaty”,etc.

This accusation is in direct breach of Standard 5 of the Broadcasting Act, 1989, which states:

“Broadcasters should make reasonable efforts to ensure that news, current affairs and factual programming:

• is accurate in relation to all material points of fact and/or

• does not mislead.”

In several interviews with Iulia Leilua, whether on the phone prior to the formal on-site interviews or during moments of casual conversation, I emphasised that I am very pro-Treaty.

I also stated that one would be hard-pressed to find three people in New Zealand who are more pro-Treaty or supportive of Te Tiriti o Waitangi than Ross Baker, Allan Titford or me.

I went to particular effort to clarify my position, as well as that of the other named individuals, but, from the very first mention on her programme of me and my work Iulia Leilua sought to misrepresent my clearly stated views.

Here are some of the dirty tricks employed in Maori Television’s attempts at character assassination:

• A sparse clip of me at an archaeological site was shown, where I had mentioned (sound-bite not broadcast) to Iulia that the intricate incising, carved bullaun bowls and chevrons in bas and raised relief on particular obelisks had been excavated from under volcanic ash from the 186 AD explosion of Taupo. The forensic evidence thus proved that these human-made features, laboriously carved into stone, predated Maori by over 1000 years.
• Rather than show the site’s component features and broadcast my explanation, Iulia immediately cut to an old archival clip of me at a Treaty-2-U protest exhibit at Rotorua in 2006 and simply stated that I:

“…dispute Maori tangata whenua status. He’s taken this message on a nationwide road show with the One New Zealand Foundation which also defends Allan Titford’s innocence.”

This is a total distortion of facts and was designed to mislead.

I wrote a comprehensive, fully documented book on the subject matter of the Treaty of Waitangi in 2005, which Iulia purports to have read, and my 2006-2007 tour around New Zealand on the heels of the Treaty-2-U propaganda road-show was to protest against the historical lies being told by The Treaty of Waitangi Information Unit.

Our small protest group provided documented proof that Treaty-2-U was totally misrepresenting the true intent, purpose and meaning of the treaty in their indoctrination of forcibly bused-in, captive-audience, schoolchildren.

My participation had nothing whatsoever to do with “Maori tangata whenua status” and was solely focused on treaty text accuracy and interpretation.

See: http://www.treatyofwaitangi.net.nz/Treaty2UPart1.htm

Iulia in her commentary states:

“They also promote an alternative version of the Treaty called the Littlewood Treaty discovered in Pukekohe in 1989. It’s been used to dispute Maori land rights and the treaty signed in 1840.”

This again is a total distortion of the facts I relayed to Iulia, and runs counter to what I clearly stated in my 2005 book about the Treaty.

None of us have ever claimed that the Littlewood document is a “treaty” or “alternative version of the treaty”.

On the contrary, we have always emphasised that it is merely the final English draft from which Te Tiriti o Waitangi (in the Maori language) was translated.

The term “Littlewood Treaty” was probably first coined in 1992 by Claudia Orange and known by that title within a close-knit academic circle.

We have merely raised a very legitimate and scholarly argument that no mainstream historian has been able to counter with documented proof.

Even Paul Moon, who is outwardly antagonistic and scathing towards those of us showing evidence the Littlewood document is the final English draft (handwritten by Busby), can’t come up with anything to counter its authenticity.

On the contrary, he’s on public record as saying the following:

• “I agree that the Littlewood document is dated 4 February 1840, and that there was almost certainly no subsequent drafting of the Treaty’s English text’ (From Dr Paul Moon’s 30/8/04 letter to treaty researcher Ross Baker, and posted onto the ONZF website.)

• “On 30th March, US Commodore Charles Wilkes, Antarctic explorer, arrived in the Vincennes to join his other ships Porpoise and Flying Fish. Damaged after their bruising exploration of the icy land, they reprovisioned and repaired their ships till late April. As he left Clendon gave him a further despatch containing a hand-written copy of the Treaty in English copied from Busby’s copy of the final draft. It is believed that Clendon then retained Busby’s copy of the Treaty” (The Treaty and Its Times, by Paul Moon and Peter Biggs, ch. 9, p. 213).

In your role as an ever-on-call expert witness about almost everything and everyone, please explain Paul!

As Paul Moon must know, for the Littlewood document to qualify as the final English draft and mother document to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the English draft, known by our Treaty historians to have gone missing in about February 1840), it must comply to the following forensic criteria:

• It had to be on paper that preceded the signing of the treaty in 1840 and that paper had to be identifiable as stock in use at the Bay of Islands in February 1840. If the paper was from an orphan stock, then that would cast doubt upon the authenticity of the document.

Clendon’s W. Tucker 1833 watermarked stock fulfils this requirement.

• The paper had to have a pedigree traceable back to one of the founding fathers who drafted the treaty and, ultimately to Busby and Hobson.

The Littlewood document’s pedigree is impeccable and fully traceable to Clendon, Busby and Hobson himself.

• The author of the hand-written text had to be James Busby, British Resident.

That attribute of the Littlewood document is also beyond dispute.

• It had to bear the date, the 4th of February 1840, as that’s the day the final English draft was written.

It is clearly signed off, 4th Feb 1840.

Despite our exhaustive efforts to be very clear on our position, grievance-industry historians like Paul Moon continuously try to detour public thinking away from the true status of the document with such well-worn, red-herring banalities as:

“It can’t be a treaty ’cause it’s not signed.”

Well, of course it’s not signed, Paul – it’s only a draft!

Now Iulia is resorting to the same dirty tricks in deliberately misreporting and misrepresenting what I have expended great effort to explain clearly to her.

She has video footage of me explaining that there “is only one treaty and it’s in the Maori language”.

She also has video footage of me corroborating that statement with a historical quote from Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson, where he said the following about the Maori language document signed at Waitangi on the 6^th of February 1840:

“The treaty, which forms the base of all my proceedings was signed at Waitangi, on the 6^th February, 1840, by 52 chiefs, 26 of whom were of the Confederation, and formed a majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. ‘This instrument I consider to be de facto the treaty, and all signatures that are subsequently obtained are merely testimonials of adherence to the terms of the original document.”

(Letter to Major Bunbury, The Treaty of Waitangi, by T.L. Buick, p. 162.)

I expressed to Iulia my view that there is no English Treaty, only the final English draft from which Te Tiriti o Waitangi was translated. It has no status as a treaty and neither does anything else in English.

I stated that the lost, final English draft was definitely found again in Pukekohe in 1989 and in my book, which Iulia had in her possession, I mention three other exemplars of the final English draft wording that have languished in overseas archives since February-April 1840 (four in total known to exist in early 1840).

Iulia knows full-well that our only gripe stems from the utter reinvention of the Treaty’s meaning since 1975, after a very defective ENGLISH text was introduced to sit alongside Te Tiriti o Waitangi and be co-equal to it.

The terrible text chosen was one of James Stuart Freeman’s seven variable Formal Royal Style English versions, which were all based upon early rough draft notes and not the final English draft.

Because of the vast differences in wording between that English version and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Maori, after 1975 the treaty meaning got deliberately reinterpreted (reinvented) until it bore no resemblance whatsoever to what was so clearly stated in either Te Tiriti or the final English draft.

Iulia has video footage of me describing Te Tiriti as a very welcome, benign “gift” from the chiefs in 1840, so, in reference to my clearly stated position and my clear evidence to the contrary, why did Native Affairs/Maori TV mischievously represent me as “anti-Treaty”?

This constitutes a very deliberate slur against my well-described and publicised views and shows that Native Affairs/Maori TV are utterly incapable of accurate investigative reporting.

The Littlewood document subject matter was very worthy of comprehensive discussion in the public arena.

Despite my giving Maori TV an entire day of time and answering any question they wished to pose, the on-archaeological-sites environment in which I conducted the interviews was, obviously, not to their liking.

They obviously wanted me in their sterile studio, being yelled down by ranting adversaries, where I could not display, first-hand, my archaeological evidence.

Even though I had already answered all their questions on camera, Mihingarangi Forbes announced to her viewing audience that I had refused to appear.

Why did I need to appear twice when they had not yet used the lengthy interviews from my first appearance?

It is my firm belief that Native Affairs are deliberately engaging in ad hominem attacks and smear-campaigns in order push their brand of self-serving propaganda.

They wish to promote only that which is beneficial to their own political agenda and have no genuine interest whatsoever towards anything considered counter-productive to their prescribed goals.

Moreover, Annette Sykes displayed an utter lack of knowledge, or worse, related to the origin and significance of the “Littlewood document”.

However, she can correct her misconceptions by studying the entire paper trail and pedigree of the document at: http://www.celticnz.org/TreatyBook/Precis.htm

Dirty tricks employed by Native Affairs further include:

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION

Although political scientist and historian Kerry Bolton, has not, to my certain knowledge, been in any way associated with the marital dispute involving Allan Titford, every effort was made to link him into a confederation with those supporting a retrial for Titford.

No such confederation exists and we pursue totally separate lines of research. His books and scholarly treatises on Marxism or other historical issues are much respected and published in academic journals around the world.

Although Ngati-Hotu kuia Monica Matamua has a dynamic story to tell about her links back to Patu-paiarehe ancestors, supported by DNA evidence and whakapapa, her claim was deliberately rendered suspect by a deceptive ruse of linking her to such dastardly fellows as Martin Doutré, Mykeljon Winckel of Elocal magazine and Kerry Bolton.

This was a treacherous, red-herring tactic employed to discredit a very dignified kuia, whose family has fought for generations to have their unique lineage and tribe recognised.

Her evidence is stand-alone and does not depend upon what Martin Doutré or anyone else “thinks”.

From my perspective, I feel that Iulia Leilua played both ends against the middle in order to get Monica Matamua to participate on the Native Affairs/Maori TV programme.

Iulia emailed me on 14/2/14 and stated:

“Kia ora Martin, just wondering if you could help me organise an interview with Monica Mataamua about her DNA testing?”

I gave Iulia the contact details that I had and, much later, after the terrible programme aired, Monica wrote the following:

“I have gone over and over Iulia’s native affairs program on the internet and the more I studied it the more crooked it got.

I must say she hounded me for months as I am wary of why people want to see me. 

I only agreed after Marty [Martin Doutré] said he had done an extensive  documentary for them so when she did turn up I thought it would be a special edition on N Hotu.

Instead she used my story, cut and spliced it to fit into her dirty scheme of hatred, prejudice and racism. Had nothing to do with the truth’”. etc. 

Monica Matamua was seemingly lured into participation largely on a pretext proffered by Iulia that I would provide visual evidence of Patu-paiarehe structures.

Monica correctly saw that a very dynamic documentary was possible, which could be composed of visual evidence of ancient astronomical and surveying structures, coupled with oral history testimony, DNA evidence and whakapapa.

Such a documentary would, undoubtedly, go a long way towards opening up a floodgate of testimony from the old learned elders, whose knowledge has been muted and supressed for many years now.

Huge new insights into our long-term history would, most certainly, result.

However, such a positive outcome obviously ran counter to the political agenda of Native Affairs.

Monica was simply used in a fashion that would diminish and trivialise her claim to pre-Maori heritage and even make a mockery of it by associating any such claim with discredited nutters and antagonists like Martin Doutré, or a gaggle of other fringe-dwellers stigmatised by the Native Affairs inquisitors.

So, it seems that tribalism, with its tradition of conquerors holding all the mana and the vanquished having none, won the day in the eyes of the unsuspecting viewing public.

The outcome was that Iulia’s Tuwharetoa tribe got to marginalise, hold at bay, and silence Monica’s Ngati Hotu tribal claim yet again by use of red-herring distractions and editing strategies.

Native Affairs are in breach of standards 4, 5 & 6 in relation to their disrespectful treatment of kuia Monica Matamua.

LOGICAL FALLACIES

They have deliberately tried to mislead their audience and unfairly instil doubt about Monica’s assertion by using a logical fallacy along the lines of:

• Monica Matamua believes she is of Patu-paiarehe lineage.
• Martin Doutré believes Monica is of Patu-paiarehe lineage, but is a disreputable fellow who tells lies.
• Monica Matamua is, therefore, not of Patu-paiarehe lineage.

This perverted form of logic, geared to unfairly manipulate the thinking of the viewers who fund Native Affairs/Maori TV from the public purse, was also used discredit the many years of documented, historical research undertaken by Allan and Susan Titford, Ross Baker and others into the Te Roroa land claim.

With regards to Titford, one of the several logical fallacies employed by Native Affairs to discredit his documented research was along the lines of:

• Te Roroa claim a right to own part or all of Allan Titford’s farm at Maunganui Bluff and seek historical redress.
• Allan Titford is a disreputable fellow who burnt down his own farmhouse.
• Te Roroa’s historical claim is therefore correct, their redress is justified and Titford’s documented research is wrong.

Several other usages of the same kind of logical fallacy could be cited in the very obvious smear campaign mounted by Native Affairs against Allan Titford and his supporters.

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ALLAN TITFORD

With regards to Maori TVs accusation that “Allan Titford burnt down his own house”, I witnessed John Ansell handing Iulia Leilua two affidavits that testified to the fact that Graham Neville Cochrane, Susan Titford’s father, had committed the arson and had made a death-bed confession of having done so.

One of these affidavits had been sworn before the Police Declarations Officer and the other before a Notary Public.

John Ansell had chosen Maori TV as the media outlet for a public launch of this very special information and we have video footage of Iulia both receiving the affidavits and having their significance explained to her by Ansell.

Despite this, Maori TV’s later assault on Allan Titford relied heavily on the false premise that he was the arsonist.

The core issue or foundation upon which their case against Titford was built was how he was guilty of this nefarious act, but how he’d deceptively blamed Te Roroa for it.

Moreover, Ranginui Walker showed himself to be deliberately obtuse and uninformed regarding the final payout to Allan Titford.

With minimal research, Walker would have ascertained that Titford received a very paltry sum when he was forced, under duress and threats, to forfeit his 1746 acre farm.

Gramsci’s foot soldier: Ranginui Walker, Lebanese Maori sovereigntist and
acolyte of Italian communist Anton Gramsci, who predicted in the 1920s that
“socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture — by infiltration of the
schools, universities, churches and the media”. (Ditto Treatifarianism.)

Walker’s facts and figures smacked of pure propaganda and he came across as a hateful racist who holds “pakeha” in utter contempt.

It’s of significance also that, whereas so-called “pakeha” can be demonised or ridiculed with impunity, under the protocols of Native Affairs tribalism individuals like Alex Nathan of Te Roroa are portrayed in more saintly fashion, beyond reproach or criticism.

In the interests of what Iulia Leilua describes as “balance”, perhaps Native Affairs could do an exposé on Nathan’s stewardship over the Te Roroa rank and file funds and efforts to recover the missing millions of dollars that disappeared during Alex Nathan’s watch as chairman.

SUMMARY

Native Affairs/Maori TV have shown themselves to have a solitary allegiance to Maori grievance-industry agendas, to the exclusion of all else.

Their condescension, unashamed manipulation and insult-to-the-intelligence of their viewing audience, in only telling the viewer what they need to know, is despicable and falls far short of ethical responsibility.

There is no provision of fair, unbiased and balanced reporting, where the viewers are empowered to consider all of the facts for themselves and come to an informed, coherent conclusion of their own volition and free will.

Maori TV, within the confines of “What Lies Beneath” (all segments) coerced its audience into accepting points of view acceptable to Native Affairs.

Other points of view were not presented with sufficient clarity that one could draw any conclusions about their merit.

All in all, Native Affairs led viewers by the nose to a singular, premeditated conclusion, by providing no valid alternative avenues for consideration, after having done a hatchet job on anyone harbouring a contrary point of view, or proffering significant counter-information.

CONCLUSION

Native Affairs/Maori TV is a blatantly racist, political organ in support of Maori supremacy and the grievance industry.

It offers nothing of educational value that would be of interest to the majority of New Zealanders and, as a special interest group’s propaganda outlet, should not be funded by the taxpayer.

Martin Doutré

What Maori TV didn’t show you

As I thought. Despite being handed two affidavits revealing that Sue Titford knew that her father had burned down the family home, Native Affairs reporter Iulia Leilua totally ignored this damning but highly inconvenient evidence.

Her report (with Martin Doutre and me featuring in part 2) blithely persisted with the line that Allan Titford had committed the arson — a charge Sue was happy to repeat in Court, knowing that National MP and now Far North mayor John Carter had guaranteed her  state immunity from being charged with perjury.

Anticipating Maori TV dishonesty from my several previous encounters with the channel, Martin and I took the unusual step of bringing along our own cameraman, John de Vere, to film all the interviews.

I’m glad we did so, as now you can see for yourself by comparing the raw footage above with the broadcast story how this state-funded channel wilfully omitted a key piece of evidence at odds with the state’s agenda to vilify Allan Titford.

Iulia did not appreciate being surprised by a second camera, but I explained that I had been surprised so many times by her channel that I simply did not trust them to present a fair account of the Titford story. I wanted a full record of everything I said, so I could post it if my fears proved correct.

The reporter had little choice but to accept this condition.

I then handed her the two affidavits from Sheryl Titford and Ileen McGrath. I explained that these were evidence of Sue’s admission that her father had confessed on his deathbed to burning down her and Allan’s home.

I thought this might be of interest to Maori TV. After all, as well as exonerating Allan Titford, Sue’s admission also exonerated the Te Roroa iwi from involvement in the arson.

But apparently they were more interested in presenting Te Roroa as aggrieved, and Allan as the cause.

You can see Iulia holding the two affidavits throughout the interview, and yet her report does not once mention this extraordinary evidence.

I’ve asked her by email why not. I’ll let you know if she ever answers.

Doutre and Ansell on Native Affairs, 8.30pm tonight

From 6.00am on the morning of the autumn equinox, 21 March (my birthday as it happens), Martin Doutre and I stood on the summit of Mt Albert with a film crew from Maori TV waiting for the sun to rise.

It did so on the other side of Auckland, in a trench which Martin said had been cut by the Patuparaiehe people to line up the equinoxial sunrise with the standing stone that we were standing beside. Cloud unfortunately obscured the event, which Martin has recorded on other occasions.

We then went down to Stanley Street to film Martin with some giant boulders which had been removed from a hill in Silverdale, and which had for thousands of years before that performed a similar astronomical role.

On a bench nearby I was filmed talking about Martin, and also about the Allan Titford case — the main reason I had made the journey from Wellington.

I thought I’d make the Titford interview more newsworthy by presenting the reporter with the two affidavits revealing that Sue Titford-Cochrane’s father had confessed to burning down Allan and Sue’s Maunganui Bluff home, not Allan, as Sue testified in Court.

We’ll see how much of this makes it to air tonight at 8.30pm. Given the media’s record so far, let’s say I’m not overly confident.

 

 

 

Doutré: boat Sue says Allan axed had steel hull!

Amongst the avalanche of lies told by Susan Titford is this big porky about Allan Titford sinking his own fishing boat.

By Martin Doutré

(Not John Ansell. If anyone knows how to get WordPress to stop inserting the blog owner’s name automatically, let’s know.)

Susan (née Cochrane) Titford putting the boot in once again in order to show the public what an absolutely dastardly fellow Allan was.

This time she’s accusing him of sinking his own fishing boat to defraud an insurance company and gain a substantial pecuniary advantage or financial windfall accordingly.

This scenario, dreamt up by Susan and/or her very naive handlers in Crown Law, the police or otherwise, then foisted onto an unsuspecting public by the presstitutes, is particularly stupid for the following reasons:

These imbeciles obviously assumed that the Helene 1 fishing boat was of wooden hull construction, capable of being holed by an axe, when, in fact, it had an ALL-STEEL, heavy plate hull.

The Helene 1 was capable of withstanding very rough seas without crippling damage, as well as severe impacts from hidden shoals if run aground in the shallows.

Such is the nature of marine steel construction, which can withstand extremely heavy punishment.

Allan Titford vehemently denies that he ever told Susan any such thing and, moreover, anyone who knows Allan well also knows, emphatically, how guarded and protective he is of his stuff.

It would be totally out of character for him to destroy his own fishing boat or house (or any other of his machines, plant and hard-won assets for that matter).

So, let’s explore the logistics of Allan Titford pulling-off this ridiculous stunt of deliberately sinking his own fishing boat.

Even if Allan Titford could actually get at a section of the inner hull with an axe and hit it with the required heavy blows (which he couldn’t), it’s certain he’d have been totally exhausted from the physical effort long before making any kind of dent or impression in the heavy steel plate.

The headroom down in the hold of the Helene 1 was only about 4’ (1.2 metres), so the idiot with the axe would have to swing it in a stooped or kneeling position, thus restricting the force of the blow.

But there’s another major problem.

The Helene 1 could act as a fueler for other fishing boats and had huge fuel-carrying capacity.

The entire length of the boat, port & starboard sides, stem-to-stern, was lined with fuel tanks, which blocked access to the hull.

This means that the idiot with the axe would first have to smash his way through the fuel tanks and end up swimming in diesel up to his belly button, before even being able to get access to the actual hull surface itself.

Any such bloody-minded and determined idiot would be quickly asphyxiated by diesel fumes.

Then there’s also the problem of the other crew members, whose lives were to be placed in great jeopardy by this moronic sabotage-attempt, 40-miles off the coast of Westport.

Isn’t it mildly possible that the others would have detected the hour-upon-hour smashing reverberations of their mad, axe wielding skipper, pounding away relentlessly a few feet below them under the deck?

Wouldn’t one of them have lifted the hatch to ask what was going on, then realised their insane skipper was trying to send the boat and them down to Davy Jones’ locker?

A bit of simple investigative journalism by the media-whores who wrote the above article, along the lines of contacting year-1969 ship builder of the Helene 1 in Timaru, would have put-paid to this stupid accusation very quickly.

The 46-feet long Helene 1 in dry dock being painted with red-lead antifouling paint to protect the all-steel hull. On the pilot house, vertical streaks of rust staining have left a mark over the central region of the name Helene 1.  

The Helene 1 was a handsome and sturdy boat that Allan Titford was, understandably, both proud to skipper and own. He was also doing quite well financially with his fishing venture.  

Loss of the boat was a major financial setback for Allan, as the long-awaited insurance pay-out was insufficient to buy a replacement boat anywhere near as large as the Helene 1 and, because the new boat was considerably shorter, Allan’s valuable fishing quota was cut drastically.

Another photo of the antifouling preservation work being done in dry dock.

This marine accident was due to a badly repaired, out of line and unbalanced propeller shaft, done by Wanganui based marine engineers.

Although the job was passed by the marine surveyor and signed off, there was, after the new shaft was fitted, a severe vibration through the boat when it was underway.

This constant vibration is thought to have eventually caused metal fatigue at the point where the propeller shaft passed through the hull from the engine room, thus rupturing the hull or piping that pumped seawater coolant to the engine.

Seawater was already lapping the top of the engine when a crew member lifted the hatch and peered down into the hold.

Frantic efforts were then made to get a hand pump working, distress calls were radioed out and other fishing boats converged on the scene as quickly as they could in an effort to save the Helene 1 and its crew.

A pump that was supposed to be helicoptered to the stricken vessel did not arrive in time and the Helene 1, listing badly, finally turned-turkey and sank while being towed to Westport by another fishing boat. 

None of the accusations made by Susan Titford concerning the loss of this boat or purported financial rewards that allegedly came from the tragic mishap, can be sustained in view of the known facts and Susan proves herself to be, once again, severely truth-challenged.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Here below is my email exchange with Mr. Trevor Robb of Aeromarine Industries Ltd, builders of the Helene 1 fishing boat:

From: Martin Doutré
Sent: 25 January 2014 7:48 a.m.
To: sales@aeromarine.co.nz
Subject: Aeromarine Industries Ltd: Helene 1, 1969

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am doing research on the Helene 1 fishing boat, built by Robb & Co in 1969 and would appreciate any specifications or photos of the boat under construction or finished.

I understand the hull was steel and that it later underwent modification to elongate the hull to 46′.

I understand also that it had huge fuel carrying capacity, with steel tanks lining the entirety of the inner hull.

Any information you could supply from your archives would be most appreciated.

Best wishes,

Martin Doutré,
Auckland.

From: Trevor Robb
Sent: Monday, 27 January 2014 7:13 p.m.
To: Martin Doutré
Cc: ‘Simon Robb’
Subject: FW: Aeromarine Industries Ltd: Helene 1, 1969

Hello Martin, Thank you for your email re the Helene.

I worked on the team that designed and built this boat.  There are possibly some records available.  What is your interest in this boat?

Trevor Robb.

From: Martin Doutre
Sent: Monday, 27 January 2014 9:03 p.m.
To: Trevor
Subject: RE: Aeromarine Industries Ltd: Helene 1, 1969

Hi Trevor,

Many thanks for responding to my inquiry and it’s especially good to know that you assisted with both the design and building of the Helene 1.

My interest in the boat is to help the former skipper of the vessel (when it was lost 40-miles out to sea off Westport in 1985), Allan John Titford, from certain slanderous accusations.

Allan was fishing very successfully with the boat, but had recently had a repair done to the main shaft in Wanganui.

He and his brother Brian, plus the other crew member, noted that when the boat was underway after the fitting of the new shaft, there was a terrible shudder through the hull.

Allan told me that he laid a spanner on the aft part of the deck and it virtually floated on air because of the vibration.

Unfortunately, these many years on, Allan, in a bitter marital split, is being publically accused by his ex of having told her how he took an axe and chopped through the hull to sink the boat and collect on the insurance.

This is based upon the assumption that the hull was of wooden construction.

However, according to what Allan has told me from Mt. Eden Prison, where he is languishing due to the testimony and character assassination of his former wife, the boat was of all steel construction.

Further to that, when it was elongated to 46’ overall, the inner hull was lined with extra fuel tanks, sufficient to travel all the way to the Chatham’s and back on its own on-board supplies.

One would have to cut through the steel fuel tanks first to even get at the hull and, apparently, accomplish all of this in a stooped position where the headroom was only 4′.

Allan vehemently denies that he ever said such a thing to his wife throughout the entirety of the marriage.

The loss of the Helene 1 was a major setback for Allan. He not only had to settle for a much smaller replacement boat, but subsequently lost a large chunk of his fishing quota in the process.

Any verification you could give related to the materials used in the construction of the Helene 1 or an overall blueprint picture, photo or whatever would be most appreciated.

Best wishes,

Martin Doutré,
Auckland.

From: Martin Doutre
Sent: Monday, 17 March 2014 5:42 p.m.
To: Trevor
Subject: RE: Aeromarine Industries Ltd: Helene 1, 1969

Hi Trevor,

You may recall my request for information about the Helene 1 fishing boat a couple of months ago.

All I really need to know is whether it was all-steel construction, as my friend Allan Titford (former owner) claims.

As stated, he has been publicly accused in the New Zealand media of sinking the boat with an axe (40-miles off Westport) … which, in and of itself, would have been very risky and put his life, as well as that of his crew members, in severe jeopardy.

Allan assures me that the boat was all-steel construction through the hull, which was also lined with fuel tanks from stem to stern.

Although I would dearly love any photos or other archival materials that you may be able to supply about the Helene 1, to exonerate Allan your simple verification that the hull was all-steel construction would be sufficient to counter and silence his accusers, who assume the hull was wooden and thereby sinkable with an axe.

Having worked in the trades myself for many years and done plenty of heavy-plate welding, I can readily see that this “sinking [a steel hulled boat] with an axe” scenario is ridiculous.

Best wishes, Martin Doutré,
Auckland.

From: Trevor Robb
Sent: Thursday, 20 March 2014 9:57 a.m.
To: ‘Martin Doutre’
Subject: RE: Aeromarine Industries Ltd: Helene 1, 1969

Yes Martin, I am able to confirm that the Helene 1 as built by D F Robb & Co Ltd was of all steel construction.

This should be able to be further confirmed by plans and approval given by the then Ministry of Transport, Marine Division.

Yours faithfully

Trevor Robb
Former Manager and shareholder of D F Robb & Co Ltd.

Martin Doutré: good on you, Ulanda!

The following are the words of Martin Doutré, a man who, along with Ross Baker, deserves a knighthood for the work he has done to enlighten truth-seeking New Zealanders.

Ross and Martin’s dogged research has exposed many Treatygate scams. They, in tandem with fellow walking encyclopaedia Allan Titford, Allan’s once-supportive wife Sue, and others like Jean Jackson, have proved to the satisfaction of all reasonable observers (not including the corrupt Waitangi Tribunal) that the Te Roroa land claim on the Titford farm is false.

For decades Ross, and more recently Martin, have spent a great deal of time with the Titford family, and got to know them all well.

These are Martin’s thoughts on the predicament Ulanda now finds herself in.

_______________________________

Essentially, Ulanda’s world got turned on its head when a bunch of conniving adults, from varied backgrounds and harbouring their own selfish motives, hatched a plan to take Allan Titford down.

The primary instigators of this programme appear to have been government and grievance-industry-aligned outsiders, who had tried to nail Allan Titford to the wall for years, in retaliation (utu) for the embarrassment he continued to cause them with his all-too-well documented evidence.

Some of this gaggle obviously included Crown Law, the Waitangi Tribunal, the police, Te Roroa opportunist thugs, The Treaty of Waitangi Information (propaganda) Unit and various members of parliament, whose dirty laundry had been hung out by Titford for all to see, etc., etc.

A unique opportunity arose to exploit Susan’s disenchantment with the rigours of dairy farm life and a marriage that was turning sour. The evidence suggests that, bit by bit, she began to play ball behind the scenes with authorities hell-bent on destroying Allan Titford once and for all.

What the authorities had failed miserably to accomplish in the public arena by fair and open means, they would accomplish via a domestic dispute sideshow and ad hominem attack that distracted public attention away from the true, outstanding issues.

The Titford children obviously became mere pawns in a strategic game being played out at a high level by government corridor-creepers with political agendas, offering enticements (pie in the sky by and by) to those in the family willing to cooperate.

It was, however, absolutely essential that there be solidarity, a singular focus and closed ranks by the entire group. Everyone had to toe the line or certain family heavies would need to intervene to browbeat or intimidate unbelievers and strays into compliant submission.

Ulanda and others of the impressionable children fell victim to severe yell-you-down adult attacks, emotional blackmail and intimidation when they broke ranks and were no longer willing to be actors in the farcical pantomime being played out.

Left: The Titford dairy farm home at Awanui was a pretty normal  rough-and- tumble household that got a bit dishevelled, then cleaned up and organised on a daily basis. The cupboards were always overflowing with plenty of goodies, the lounge was often strewn with toys and, in this photo, Xmas cards from well-wishers hang from above the sliding doors leading out to the deck. Nice portraits of all the kids hung from the walls and, although the language between siblings was often colourful, everyone interacted reasonably well. 

Right: Flounder speared at the back of the farm by James and Ulanda sit in the kitchen sink before a fry-up.

Left: Ulanda, in gumboots, gets down into a muddy ditch in preparation of getting a strop around a stranded cow before it gets gently pulled to safety by the tractor.

Right: Shiane, Ulanda and Jesse horse around in one of Allan’s vintage cars before it’s put to bed in a shed.

Left: Alyssa (background) and Ulanda (foreground) involved in the once-a-day, afternoon milking and training up the city-boy bystander on what to do.

Right: Shiane, Jesse and Alyssa in the background and Ulanda sitting in the water at Ninety Mile Beach, not far from the farm, where they often went to recreate. The also swam regularly at the local lake and frequently dined out at Kaitaia.

I was impressed that the kids were always well dressed, seemed to have all of the latest electronic gadgetry or toys, etc., and what I would have described as a nice environment to grow up in at and around the farm.

Allan maintained a level of discipline that kept the children on the straight and narrow, which situation, once he was out of the picture (2.5 years after these pictures were taken), turned to custard.

Some of the kids turned feral once they were beyond Allan’s jurisdiction. Adults such as Susan, as well as her father Graham and brother Richard turned a blind eye and blithely let the older girls be sexually exploited by live-in adult predators, a situation Allan would never have tolerated for an instant.

If anything, Allan was perhaps over-protective and ever mindful of consequences, which might explain why in about 40 years of driving he never had one speeding or parking ticket.

Alyssa and her boyfriend Tyler, as well as James, complained to me about the constant harassment they endured from Graham and Richard Cochrane, which caused them to flee the Hikurangi home and try to make a life for themselves elsewhere.

Similarly, both Ulanda and Gene Hanham (an adult who had been permitted to sleep with 13 year old Ulanda and had impregnated her when she was only about 14 years of age) complained of the almost daily violence and abuse being handed down by Graham and Richard, which caused them to flee also.

When they did finally fly the coop, however, the threats from Susan, Graham, Richard and Alyssa came in thick and fast, heavily laced with emotional blackmail to get them back into line.

Gene Hanham had been threatened with a shot between his eyes or in the chest, and, according to dispossessed Northland farmer, Don Harrison, something akin to that did in fact happen, except with a non-lethal, gun-blasted, paper-wad projectile that, according to Don, is reported to have “hurt like hell”.

Thereafter, Gene Hanham apparently saw the world in a whole new light and wrote to Allan, threatening him that he was not to, under any circumstances, release any of the supportive statements Ulanda had sent to him.

Isn’t it amazing what a near-death experience can do to an individual’s outlook on life, and how putting the fear of god into someone can bring about such a dramatic and spontaneous reappraisal of how they should conduct themselves?

So, in summary, very young, impressionable and vulnerable Ulanda, for all of her good intentions and genuine sentiments in support of her father, didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of countering the many adult bullies that surrounded her, yelling her down and bludgeoning her into dutiful submission when she refused to participate in the let’s-all-hate-Dad game.

In the end, even the father of her child, Gene, withdrew his support, seemingly in dread fear after having so recently confronted his own delicate grip on mortality.

Good on you Ulanda!

Despite your tender years and all of the intimidation or turmoil you were unfairly subjected to, you still had the courage of your convictions to speak out in defence of your much-maligned Dad.

With all due consideration to your present situation or need to survive as a young mother and partner, trying to make a go of things, your former actions of speaking the truth when forbidden to do so, stand out as remarkable and courageous.

I have great respect and admiration for you, as do others who read your words, for what you tried to do in such intimidating and difficult circumstances.

Despite your heart-felt pleas, your Dad had the ultimate gag-order placed on him.

If he contacted you in any way, even through a third party like me, it meant a serious breach of the trespass-order and immediate imprisonment … as he came to find out when he tried to help Alyssa in 2010.

What you wanted or what your father wanted didn’t count, as others held all the power over you both.

Sue Titford’s diary casts doubt on 2009 rape

Sue offers two different accounts of what happened “on or about the 7th
day of July 2009”. Which is true? Is either true? Sure, being kicked out of
bed for not having sex is not very nice. But it’s the very opposite of rape.

Of the 39 convictions for which Allan Titford has been sentenced to 24 years in prison, by far the most serious are three convictions for rape — supposedly in 1987, 2008 and 2009.

(The maximum penalty for rape, by the way, is 20 years.)

In the last post, you read medical evidence for why Titford was unlikely to have been ‘up’ for a sexual violation in 1987.

After his pain problem was fixed, he may have been — but now Sue’s own diary casts doubt on the 2009 rape as well.

Martin Doutré picks up where he left off in the last post…

MARTIN DOUTRÉ TO SUE TITFORD (COCHRANE) — CONTINUED

Also as previously stated, the only rape accusation that is accompanied by a date (on or about July 7, 2009, at Kaitaia) for which Allan was convicted, is very conspicuous by its absence in the detailed list of allegations against Allan that you sent to me – even though diary entries for both the 6th and 7th of July 2009 are covered.

You wrote:

6 July 2009, Allan was grumpy and yelling at everyone all night. He never talks to use like people only like animals. Tonight after arguing when we went to bed I would not have sex with him so he pushed me out of bed with his feet and told me to fuck off, and then said it doesn’t matter because I am useless in bed any way. So I slept in Alyssa’s room the night. 7

July 09 Allan came up to Alyssa’s bedroom  kicked me in the legs and told me to get up and go to his room to talk. He told me to pack up and leave. Which would be ok if I have somewhere to go and an income to support all the kids.

Is this another one of those instances where you suddenly had a ‘flashback’ after deep consultation with the police, and the ‘repressed memory’ suddenly came to the fore, causing you to rush home and add it to your diary, years after the event?

Allan Titford has been stitched up by an orchestrated litany of lies and a smear campaign, in which Susan is merely one duped, complicit but useful participant in the greater ad hominem attack.

Martin Doutre

_______________________________________

That’s two of the three rapes that may not have happened.

So, did the third?

Evidence of Titford kids lying, stealing, pushing drugs and having under-age sex while in Sue’s care

What follows is an email and affidavit from longstanding friend of both Allan and Sue Titford, Martin Doutré.

The first line of Martin’s email refers to TVNZ’s Sunday programme of last week — a predictable state hatchet job, but one in which the children looked far from convincing.

Read this and learn why.

_____________________________

From: Martin Doutré
To: John Ansell
Date: Tuesday 3 December, 2013

Hi John,

If that was  a sober and drug-free James on the [TV on Sunday] night, then he’s a hell of a lot dumber than he used to be. The lights have certainly dimmed significantly in 3 years.

Perhaps he thought he needed a bit of “Dutch courage” to face the TV interview ordeal. He did not look or sound like the James I knew so well over the years, but more like a zombie. He was utterly away with the fairies and spoke like a complete retard, slurring his speech and having obvious difficulty saying anything meaningful or coherent.

What happened was that, between about the beginning of 2006 onwards, Allan was really, mostly, an absentee dad, rarely at home.

From January 2006 through to mid-July he was mostly on the road with me and Ross Baker, following the Treaty 2 U propaganda roadshow around the country.

The same holds true for the summer to autumn months of 2007.

Susan and the kids had ways of letting him know that they liked it better when he was away, and consequently he was often over at the Kaikohe farm or down country looking at vintage cars or whatever.

For the most-part, Susan ran the farm and household, but for long spells outsiders were paid to come in and do the milking, like Mr. Flay, a neighbour on nearby Kumi Road, or various others.

Also, a digger contractor called Barry was working almost full time, for seemingly several years,  on cutting miles of drains.

Allan did only one milking per day, in the afternoon around 3:30 pm. There was never, in my memory, any necessity for anyone to be up at 5 am and out in the milk-shed.

I stayed at the house many times over the years and everyone got up at the normal, expected hours on school-days. Susan got up the earliest and began rustling up breakfast for the kids and preparing school lunches, aided by the older girls.

The kids were out the door and down the drive to meet the bus just after 8 am or so. All were well dressed and scrubbed up, sporting flash, designer-type school bags. They certainly never looked like impoverished kids.

Alyssa, when she was about 15-16 claimed she was being bullied at school in Kaitaia and asked to stay at home and do her courses by correspondence school. A lot of the so-called bullying was, from memory, text-harassment that came through her phone.

Being a tall, strong girl I know she was capable of taking very good care of herself and, at one time, beat up a boy who was picking on James.

I’m quite sure the real reason she quit school is because she simply couldn’t be bothered going.

She enrolled in the correspondence school course and, for a time, did her lessons at the dining room table for an hour or two a day, which, from my memory, seemed to be sufficient to get through all the assignments.

James, who hated school and wanted to escape the daily drudgery of catching the bus, also managed to talk his parents into completing his education by correspondence.

His excuse for home-schooling was also bullying.

Allan, as I recall, was very much against the kids leaving school but, because of his very frequent absence from home and hearth, the older kids got their way by browbeating Susan into agreeing.

It would be interesting to go into their school records to see how many correspondence school assignments they bothered to complete.

If the onus was on anyone to monitor them and make sure the assignments were done, then that task fell on Susan, who was always there, whereas Allan was so-often absent for long spells.

Susan had, seemingly, full access to the bank account and spent large sums each week  on food or domestic necessities.

This business about them all being slaves and working until 10 pm at night is rubbish.

The milking was finished by about 5 pm and Susan, Alyssa & James had the cows back in the fields and were cleaned up by dinner time.

The girls pitched in to prepare the evening meal and then everyone sat around the lounge eating dinner, with plates in their laps, watching TV for a few hours.

Of all the group, Susan’s hours on the job were the longest, mainly due to being the first up in the morning and the last to get to bed at night after the rest of the brood were bedded down.

She often did typing for Allan in the evenings or during the day and had a very full schedule, but also leisure time and long spells of playing electronic games with the kids or reading to them or looking at stuff on Trade Me with them.

There were also the endless nappies to change and babies to hold and cater for.

The daughters Ulanda and Shiane pitched in a lot taking care of the little ones.

Ross Baker and I agreed wholeheartedly that Susan had a very heavy, unenviable schedule, but a huge part of the burden related to her having (by 2009) seven children.

That was a lifestyle choice that she chose herself. She wanted seven kids.

I don’t agree that the lack of accomplishment by these older kids is solely Allan’s fault and the largest contributing factor for the failure falls on the kids themselves, who schemed to drop out of school and then couldn’t be bothered following a daily routine of doing their home assignments.

They certainly had ample time available to fulfil those assignments on a daily basis, but opted to do other things instead.

By 2011, Alyssa was well known for pushing drugs in the North, according to a digger-driver mate of mine, Ian Pyke.

By that time Allan had been out of the picture for 18 months or more.

Just before the split, Allan told me that Alyssa was going to do a course to enter the hotel or hospitality industry as a tour guide or the like, and he had aspirations and high hopes for her in that regard.

However, she didn’t have the self-discipline to follow it through, and decided to run wild and go badly off the rails instead when beyond the jurisdiction and control of her father.

She apparently settled for being a thief and drug user and pusher instead, if the reports from people in the know in the North are correct.

When she’s accused of things or caught out, she smiles or hides behind a smile … very strange … a real smiling assassin.

Best wishes,

Martin.

_____________________________

 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I have been asked to make an account of events that transpired between Saturday 17 July and, ostensibly, 29 July 2010 related to my association and experiences with Tyler Jackson, Alyssa Cochrane (née Titford) and James Cochrane (né Titford).

As a result of these events and my subsequent devolution of critical and worrisome facts to Allan Titford (father of Alyssa and James), he phoned Susan Cochrane, his estranged wife and mother of Alyssa and James.

17 JULY 2010

At approximately 9:15 pm I received a phone call at home from Alyssa, asking for my assistance.

She was at a car stranded in the suburb of Glen Eden, Auckland.

I knew already that she, her boyfriend and James were in Auckland, as they’d asked my son Alain for money earlier in the day and had called by his flat.

He had refused to give them any more money as he’d already given James funds earlier in the week, when told that James needed gas money to get him and Alyssa home to Hikurangi.

James said in a text message, on the earlier occasion, that they had come down to Auckland seeking work and that there was a milking job going at Tokoroa to look at.

On this very frosty night of 17 July 2010, I called my son Gene to return from the city and pick me up, as we needed to tow James’s car home to safe circumstances.

We went to the fairly seedy location and found the stranded car at a BP service station.

We towed the car home to [MARTIN’S ADDRESS], arriving at about midnight.

Beds were made up at Gene’s place down the back of my farmlet, where the weary trio spent the night.

18 JULY 2010

We put James’s Nissan Laurel into a sunny spot and commenced working on it to find and check the fuel pump.

My son Gene tested all of the electrical connections to the fuel pump with a multi-meter and found them to be working, but the internals of the pump were dead.

Gene also drove Alyssa and Tyler to Kumeu to borrow money from one of Tyler’s ex-girlfriends.

James and I inspected the fuel pump on a spare Nissan car that I have, but found it to be too small to fit his much larger Nissan Laurel.

During the first day of staying at my place, Alyssa and Tyler told me how they’d been virtually forced out of the house at Hikurangi.

They enumerated their ongoing, intolerable domestic problems as:

• The constant interference in the family affairs of Susan’s father (Graeme Cochrane) and uncle (Richard Cochrane), who were at the house seemingly every day making demands and intimidating everyone or being very controlling.
• James complained that his grandfather or uncle threatened to beat him up on frequent occasions or were argumentative.
• Tyler complained that Susan, Graham and Richard didn’t like him and that he was made to feel very unwelcome.
• He also complained about the confrontational attitude of another man living at the house called Gene, who was about 26, but who had been sleeping in the same bed as Ulanda (Allan & Susan’s second eldest daughter), since she was just 13-years old.
• Tyler mentioned that he would never do such a thing, but that because Gene was Uncle Richard’s friend both Graeme and Richard turned a blind-eye to this statutory rape of a minor.
• Alyssa made a similar complaint to her great-aunt Aileen (Allan’s aunt) on the evening of 26 July 2010.
• Alyssa also complained to me about the confrontational attitude coming from Gene and Ulanda and the constant scrapping.
• After she was at my home for a day or so, she received a phone call from Ulanda stating that she and Gene were taking over Alyssa’s bedroom, and there was also some kind of altercation concerning Alyssa’s TV.
• Alyssa and Tyler said that Gene was a low-life who had stolen all of the heavy cast-iron wheels and other vintage cast-iron ornaments out of the landlord’s garden at the Hikurangi home and sold them for scrap for $20.
• Tyler said he had far more integrity than Gene, but that Susan and the others had turned against him, forcing him out and shunting him on.

During the day both Alyssa and Tyler convinced me that they were making a clean break and would begin a life together as farm workers, milking cows.

I knew that Alyssa had tremendous talent and training in that regard and assumed that Tyler was similarly trained-up and capable.

They represented themselves as an ambitious young couple trying to get a start in life, but encountering a few present mechanical-financial problems that were holding up the process.

I determined that I would help them get on their feet as best I could.

18 JULY 2010

Tyler asked me if he could work out a deal with me for a very nice, but deregistered, Nissan Avenir station wagon I had sitting in storage.

He said it would be perfect for their job-hunting around outlying farms, as they could sleep in the back.

James was running them around for the moment, but needed to get back to the North.

Tyler said he had worked as a car certifier and still had contacts in the industry that could do the certification.

I tentatively agreed, but would discuss the matter in more detail after thinking about it.

In the evening of 18 July 2010, Allan Titford called me, but I gave no indication that his children were at my home, as I had been sworn to silence by Alyssa not to tell either Allan or Susan of their whereabouts.

19 JULY 2010

Returned from work and gave Alyssa $20 for some basic supplies.

My son Gene was hooking up James’s car to haul it to a distant garage before it closed where it would be fixed by Tyler’s mate sometime later in the week.

Gene had already torn the guts out of his own car and clutch getting this very heavy Nissan Laurel home and I advised against it, especially in peak hour traffic.

All they needed was a fuel pump and the relatively easy repair could be done at home within a couple of hours once we had the parts.

Tyler purchased some parts through a mate, but when they arrived they were found to be wrong.

I took Alyssa to The Warehouse and bought her some urgently needed supplies, as well as other items.

I later got onto my digger and pulled my white 1995 Nissan Avenir up to the workshop in preparation of going over it mechanically and cleaning it up for Alyssa and Tyler.

We had started it up and it ran very nicely, but the sticking clutch cylinder needed replacement. We water blasted the car and put internal trim and fittings back in place. The little station wagon came up looking very nice.

            
Alyssa water-blasts the 1995 Nissan Avenir car while Tyler works on the right tail-
light. The deal was that they could have the car on the basis that they get their own
certification for it, and then certify another car for me that I had on the property.
The value of the car I gave them, once certified, would be between $2000-$2500.

The weather was generally very cold and often wet, and I was concerned about how lightly clad both Alyssa and, especially, Tyler were.

Tyler arrived with a cough, which seemed to get worse with each passing day. Gene gave him a jacket to wear.

20 JULY 2010

Alyssa and Tyler did more tidy up work on the Nissan Avenir, while James removed the defective fuel pump from his Nissan Laurel.

After work I went and picked up a mechanic friend who had a multi-vac unit for sucking through the clutch fluid to get the Nissan Avenir going.

Barry Taylor completed the task of making the station wagon fully driveable.

He had, the year before, done substantial work on Alyssa’s Hyundai sedan, which she had sold to her mother.

21 JULY 2010

Took them to the ASB bank to get out money.

I’d stocked up food and drink supplies to keep them going, but was mystified as to why they were smoking so much, when they were so lacking in resources.

They said they wanted to deliver the Nissan Avenir car to the certifiers and Tyler had taken new brake pads from my spare’s stockpile and installed them.

22 JULY 2010

While fixing my own car in my workshop, I was approached by Tyler, Alyssa and James, who wanted to arrange for me to pick them up later and take them to Waiwera to get the replacement fuel pump for the Nissan Laurel.

I later picked them up at the local garage from where, they said, they’d sent the 1995 Nissan Avenir to AA Compliance Centre, Portage Rd, New Lynn.

Weeks later I was able to learn that they’d very deceitfully sold the beautiful little station wagon to a towing company for some paltry sum, simply to get cigarettes and enough cash to buy James’s fuel pump.

When I finally learnt this I was heartbroken.

Alyssa had, apparently, used her driver’s licence as ID to show the tow-truck driver that she was the owner of the car being sold.

Both she and James were fully complicit as accomplices in the utterly stupid disposal of this car, which they had neither paid for nor intended to pay for in the future.

To add insult to injury, the lying trio, under false pretences, then had me drive them to Waiwera, where they purchased a fuel pump using funds from a car that they had, essentially, stolen from me.

I was now under the very mistaken impression that my valuable “gift” to them sat over in Glen Eden awaiting compliance and, that in a few days, the other car I had would undergo the same process, as agreed upon.

23 JULY 2010

A very miserable, cold rainy day.

I came home from work to find that James and Tyler had failed to get the fuel pump working and, in the attempting various things, Tyler had very stupidly cut the wires leading to the air-flow meter sensor.

Not only that, Tyler had utterly smashed the electrical plug leading to the device, then biffed it in the mud.

We searched around and retrieved the smashed plug.

Gene and I worked for hours re-soldering the mutilated parts and Gene finally got the car going, but running rough, late in the night.

Earlier I had taken them shopping and bought them groceries.

I was now beginning to see how dysfunctional, chaotic and out of control these kids were.

In my diary I described them as butcher-mechanics.

24 JULY 2010

It was a Saturday and the Nissan Laurel ran but sounded overly grunty, as if it was almost drowning in fuel.

In the morning they loaded up the car and headed north, or so I thought.

As they drove away, I was grateful to see them depart, as the last week or so had been very taxing and tiring. At last, Gene and I finally had our lives back.

Later, I had a call from my son Alain. The trio were stranded again, with no money, at Glen Eden (they’d gone south & not north).

Alain drove to them and gave them cash for gas, but told them to never ask him for money again.

They limped their gas guzzling car to me and only just made it.

The reasonably short trip across the city cost about $20.

Because the sensor was badly mutilated, the car was now consuming huge amounts of fuel.

I was stuck with the trio again. Fed them a pork roast dinner. Tyler was very sick with the flu and a terrible cough. I made him up a batch of Maori medicine from the kumaraho plant, and this cleared the terrible congestion.

25 JULY 2010

It’s Sunday and Tyler had apparently arranged for a tow truck driver friend to come and pick up the now sabotaged and defunct car in the morning and deliver it to Hikurangi.

We made a supreme effort to tow the heavy car up our drive to the main road, where the transporter could load it.

I had to finally take the digger up to push the Nissan Laurel up the steep part of the drive and onto the highway.

The trio waited at the car all day, but no tow truck ever turned up. It was all nonsense.

After a mammoth effort to get the car to the roadside for pickup, no tow-truck ever turned up.

They later came down for dinner.

Alyssa was in urgent need of more supplies, so I took her to the Warehouse and she stocked up, but also managed to bum $15 more off me at the service station for her much-needed cigarettes, saying she’d have money tomorrow and would pay me back then.

Of course, she had no such intention to do so and never did.

The Nissan Laurel spent the night on the roadside.

26 JULY 2010

I went to work in the morning, but had a break between classes where I could come home for a couple of hours.

Found the trio basking in the sun.

Tyler, said he’d like to buy a deregistered Subaru Legacy car, belonging to my son Alain, off us as he needed the motor for a car body he had over at Herald Island, near Whenuapai.

He said he’d already talked to my son.

I called Alain, who had abandoned the car at my farm and he said for me to do what I liked with it, as he had no further interest in the vehicle.

The car, although damaged, had an excellent motor in it that Allan Titford and I had hauled back from Matamata.

It also had a new clutch and pressure plate, a new gearbox and 4 new tyres, which I needed for another car.

Tyler offered $600 and I said I’d think about it.

I also said that I wanted to resolve one thing at a time, and we still hadn’t finalised the certification of the other cars.

I also said that if I sold it I would still want to keep the new tyres on it.

Later, as I hurried off to work, I passed the trio sitting in my kitchen, Tyler announced that his tow-truck mate, Junior, was coming to get the Subaru.

I said very emphatically, “NO! — the car is to be left where it is”.

Later I returned from work to find that the Subaru was gone.

The trio had also wandered off to Westfield Shopping Centre to buy stuff. (As I found out weeks later, with money obviously acquired by selling the Subaru to the tow-truck company.)

Again, apparently Alyssa used her driver’s licence to claim ownership of the car, so that the towing company were reassured that they could legally remove it from my premises.

I now knew what I was dealing with.

These were not the responsible, work-seeking individuals trying to make a positive start in life I had been led to believe they were.

Alyssa and Tyler, like Bonnie and Clyde were a couple of upcoming crims and James was little better than their getaway driver.

I was gutted that the Titford children, whom I’d known for years, would be capable of bare-faced lying to me to this degree.

But the true magnitude of the deception I wasn’t to find out until many weeks later.

For their defence in hauling away the Subaru against my expressed wishes, Tyler and the ever-deceitful others feigned surprise at my attitude, in saying, “Oh, but we thought you said it was alright to take it away”, which they knew was an absolutely falsehood.

I had been sworn to silence, and had kept the location of this triad in confidence from Susan and Allan Titford, as requested by Alyssa and James.

During the preceding week, multiple phone-calls and text messages had been sent to the trio by Susan, asking where they were and urgently requesting that James come home immediately for a farm-job that had been arranged for him.

With the theft of the Subaru, I was at the end of my tether and determined to terminate this drawn-out pantomime they were playing at my expense.

My son Gene said he’d take James home that evening to Hikurangi.

I said rather bluntly to Tyler and Alyssa to make up their minds what they were going to do — either come to Hikurangi with us or stay somewhere else in Auckland.

I left them to talk it out and loaded up James’s gear.

I called Susan and explained the situation, and that we were going to deliver James home late in the evening and possibly Alyssa as well.

She said she would wait up for us.

Tyler wanted to go to his mum’s place, supposedly over near Schnapper Rock Road, but wanted a very tearful Alyssa to go home to Hikurangi.

Both Gene and I had to work the next day and did not have the luxury of dilly-dallying while immature, love-struck brats made up their minds as to what they would do.

We attempted to drop Tyler at a video store near Schnapper Rock Rd, but he wasn’t going to let anyone know which house belonged to his mother.

Alyssa clung like a vine to him and wouldn’t get back in the car until Tyler forced her to.

He disappeared into the rainy night and Alyssa was hysterical as we drove away.

She attempted to exit the car at the lights and run off in the pouring rain to chase Tyler.

Thankfully the lights turned green while we were still rolling and she couldn’t exit.

She sobbed and yelled and it was evident there was no way we could go anywhere with her in such an out-of-control state.

I told Gene to drive home.

We’d lost a whole hour of travel time because of Tyler’s needs and Alyssa’s tantrum.

I called her Aunty Aileen, who lives in Brown’s Bay, and asked if I could drop Alyssa there.

She was very reluctant, but said yes after I explained the urgency of the situation.

Gene and I drove James home and dropped him off.

Susan and I had a talk and she gave me a number of revelations about Tyler and how he was using an alias name and had a record of convictions.

She wanted both Alyssa and Tyler to appear in the North, as the local police wished to grab and interview him.

Susan was trying to find out his real name, and was fairly sure she’d tracked it down, but would need to check more.

Susan also told me that Alyssa had been running wild, and had pretty much burnt all of her bridges with all of her friends by constantly borrowing money off them.

She had accrued large debts.

I was warned that Tyler was a very dodgy character and lied endlessly.

Susan also told me I would never see my cars again.

Before heading home, I requested some clothing for Alyssa, which I would drop by her great-aunt’s place.

Ulanda made me up 4 plastic shopping bags of items.

Gene and I were almost stranded in Whangarei when the alternator of the car failed. We later got it going again by revving the motor to red line, then headed out on the harrowing ride south.

It fully failed at Wellsford and we had to drive the last 40-miles on what power remained in the battery.

27 JULY 2010

I had just endured about 10 days of chaotic hell in trying to cater to the needs of this out-of-control trio, with at least two seasoned con-artists in the troupe.

I was tired at work, but got through the day.

I had called Aunty Aileen in the morning to say I had clothes for Alyssa, but Aunty said that Alyssa had only stayed there an hour last night.

She had been picked up by Tyler and some dodgy-looking mates in Brown’s Bay, where Aunty had been bullied into taking her.

At least the nightmare was over … or so I naively thought.

At about 10 pm, an hour after I had gone to bed, I received an urgent phone call from Allan Titford.

He had been called at home at Awanui by Alyssa, requesting help.

Because he was so far away and couldn’t render immediate assistance himself, he called me.

He said, “Alyssa missed her bus and is stranded at Westfield Shopping Centre. Could you please pick her up and give her a place to sleep for the night?”

I reluctantly explained to Allan that Alyssa, James and Tyler had stayed with me for the past ten days and made a short account of the sorry situation.

The main priority at that moment was to get Alyssa into safe circumstances, so I hung up with Allan and called her cell-phone number and Tyler answered.

I asked to speak to Alyssa and upon doing so I arranged to pick them from the Shell service station in Albany.

It was a bitterly cold night again and I found the two of them to be only very lightly clad, without decent warm jackets.

Tyler was very hesitant to get in the car and was hiding behind a pillar.

I finally said, “Make up your mind ’cause I’m leaving now”.

He climbed in and I drove them home in irritated silence, to a good bed and much-needed warmth. Why do these damned kids have to wait till such a late hour to get people scurrying after them?

I called Allan at Awanui and said that Alyssa was now in safe circumstances, but mentioned how I’d found her shuddering with cold, wearing only light attire.

I said that the two of them were in real danger of hypothermia out in the elements like that in the dead of winter.

I told him that Susan had said that Tyler is a very dodgy character, with a criminal record and using an alias. I had firmly concluded that Tyler was a compulsive liar and that everything spewed out of his mouth was false.

I still held mostly to the conclusion that Alyssa was just a stupid love-struck kiddie, who was staying dutifully loyal to her beloved.

I now know better.

28 JULY 2010

Alyssa and Tyler were getting a bus northwards at 10:30 am and Gene dropped them at the bus-stop.

Under utterly false pretences they’d had both Allan, as well as Susan, as far as I know, send down money for bus tickets that were never going to be purchased.

When I called by the Post Office in the late afternoon to mail off a package they were there and looked sheepishly surprised to see me.

I said, “I thought you were getting a bus at 10:30 am”?

Tyler mentioned how they’d missed that bus, but were now getting the 4:30 pm one … yeah right!

Later, at home my son Gene reckoned I’d be getting another call late tonight to come and pick them up, which proved to be prophetic.

I received a call from Alyssa at 9:30 pm saying that they’d missed the bus and what should she do?

I told her to call Tyler’s mother at Schnapper Rock Road and get some assistance from Tyler’s family.

Much later, Allan Titford called and we discussed the worsening situation of his daughter becoming a “street kid”.

Aunty Aileen wanted nothing more to do with Alyssa, especially chasing around after her in the middle of the night.

I asked Allan if his brother Brian, who lives just north of me in Waiwera, could take her in.

Allan then called Brian, who wasn’t interested in helping.

Allan called back and told me that there were no family resources of shelter in the offering.

I then called my son Gene and woke him up, then forewarned him of yet another nocturnal visitation.

I called Alyssa to find out her whereabouts. She and Tyler were outside Pak N’ Save beside Westfield Mall.

I headed down at midnight and found them standing near a security guard who was eyeing them closely.

Alyssa was smoking. They got into the car, out of the bitterly cold night, and I drove them home, pissed off by their out-of-control, ever-disruptive shenanigans.

29 JULY 2010

I didn’t have to start work at the university until midday, so prepared a letter-document, in the name of Tyler Jackson, addressed to the AA Compliance Centre, Portage Rd., Glen Eden detailing how the white Nissan Avenir car and Subaru were to be retrieved by Martin Doutré.

Tyler and Alyssa had continuously adhered to the lie that both cars were delivered to those premises by Tyler’s tow-truck mate “Junior”.

When Alyssa and Tyler appeared for their ride down the hill to the bus-stop, I confronted him with the document.

I told him to write down the names and phone numbers related to the individuals and companies that had removed the cars, as well as the present whereabouts of the vehicles and to sign it.

Alyssa looked very sheepish and Tyler became defensive and righteously indignant.

He nevertheless, wrote on the document, then crossed stuff out, as if very confused and under pressure after being sprung.

Gene and I drove them to Westfield Mall.

They got out of the car looking totally pissed off and angry at me and strode off without comment.

The document I tried to get Tyler Jackson (alias) to sign.

As it turned out, the cars never made it to AA Compliance Centre, Portage Rd, New Lynn and staff had no knowledge of them.

Also, the name that Tyler wrote for the towing company did not exist and the phone number given for his tow-truck driver mate was a fabrication.

Later on the same day I received a phone call from Tyler promising me profusely that he would honour his debt and commitment to me.

In the preceding days, I had primed Allan Titford about the potentially dangerous situation Alyssa had placed herself in.

Tyler Jackson was an unknown quantity, but seemingly had a criminal record for assault, if Susan was right about his real name.

She was going to tell the police the name she had found and have his identity verified.

It was in this critical atmosphere that Allan called Susan to find out what was going on and what to do about the dangerous situation involving his daughter.

I expected no less, as I was caught in the middle trying to deal with Alyssa’s problems, and had been systematically fleeced of assets in the process.

It was long past time for the parents to intervene directly and take full responsibility for the actions of their children, and I made this very clear to Allan.

By this point I’d had a gutsful.

29 JULY 2010

I made a call to Alyssa at about 8 pm to make sure she was in safe circumstances and had a place to stay that night. She assured me she was indoors and safe.

Much later that evening, I received a call from Allan Titford who said he’d called Susan to find out about Tyler.

He told me very emphatically that both Susan and he wanted me to lay a complaint with the police, against Tyler, over the theft of the cars.

I told him that I’d received a promise from the boy that he would honour his debt and that, inasmuch as I had only entered into the arrangement a few days ago, it was too premature to initiate a police complaint against the kid.

I told him that it might come to that later.

Allan then told me that if Alyssa became a bank robber it would be my fault.

He then yelled, “That’s the problem with this bloody country, everyone stands back”, then slammed the phone down in my ear.

I have not talked to him since.

For the next few weeks I remained in contact with Susan, and she kept me updated on her investigations.

She had been correct that Tyler’s real name as Anthony Matthew Lake.

She continued to have ongoing trauma in her dealings with Alyssa, including the theft of her car and later the theft of $1900, when Alyssa stole her credit card and maxed it out.

I have, however, stayed in fairly regular contact with Tyler (Anthony) who finally told me the full sordid story of what happened to my cars.

He has so far made two payments towards compensating for their loss.

30 JULY 2010

I got a phone call from Aunty Aileen that Allan had been arrested for calling Susan.

Late in the night of the 30^th I commenced a letter to Susan, conveying my disappointment that she would have Allan arrested for calling her for information that would help him intercede in the worsening situation related to their daughter, Alyssa.

I sent the letter to Susan just after midnight on the 31^st.

This is what it said:

Hi Susan,

                I find it very sad that Allan might have to go to gaol for a long spell because he called you after I told him of the terrible plight that Alyssa was in.

When he first called me to seek my help in getting her to safety, out of the cold in the dead of night, he had no inkling as to what the true situation was. He just figured she was somehow stranded momentarily and needed help. Alyssa had called him, seeking his assistance.

I had been sworn to silence by them and told horror stories about how they’d been ejected from the home, etc., and how unfairly they’d been treated … ad nauseum … but it was dawning on me that they were totally dysfunctional and out of control. 

The problem lay with them and no-one else.

I was very reluctant to tell Allan about the fiasco going on, but simply had to, as the situation was getting dangerous …  with his daughter out in the dead of night in midwinter and so lightly clad that there was a real risk of hypothermia.

She had developed a bad cough and Tyler had never stopped coughing from day-one (the incessant smoking certainly didn’t help).

I had no other option but to fill Allan in on the seriousness of the situation. To have done otherwise would have been irresponsible by that point in time. 

We had taken James home on Sunday night, but it was clear that Alyssa was not going to cooperate in getting herself back into safe circumstances and had thrown a hysterical, sobbing tantrum when we tried to drive her north with James.

After Tyler had disappeared into the night near Schnapper Rock Rd, she had attempted to exit the car at the lights, but we had kept the car moving.

I was obliged to get her to Aunty Ilene’s, as the only available, safe option. She’s an adult and has a legal right to make her own decisions, regardless of how stupid those decisions might be. I could not and would not force her to go north against her will. 

As it turns out, and unbeknown to me, she only remained there at Ilene’s for an hour.

All of this I told to Allan and he said that the only thing he could do is call you to see what the full situation was and find out about Tyler, so that he had some idea on how to proceed.

Under the circumstances of Alyssa being on the loose and out of control, I considered that to be a very reasonable and welcome move, as I was caught in the middle.

Both Gene and I have had to shell out quite a bit, both in time and money to try to normalise the situation as much as possible, but it was well past time for the parents to confer on the matter between themselves, share information and come up with a mutually agreeable solution.

It disturbs me now to know that Allan has now been incarcerated on a “technicality”. I’ve always considered that there is the “letter of the law” and there is the “spirit of the law” and the reason for his call to you was well-intentioned, with Alyssa’s well-being in mind.

In saying this, I have not talked to Allan, but heard about him being arrested when Aunty Ilene called me just before work this morning.

I’m astonished that anyone would want to penalise him in this way for trying to intercede and help his daughter.  

My last conversation with Allan was pretty much an argument over “calling the police and getting Tyler arrested for theft”. I considered I was being bullied into something too prematurely.

I have talked to Tyler and have received assurances that the white Nissan Avenir is going to be brought back here. Also, I’ll retrieve the Subaru if certain conditions are not met.

I’m going to give the young man a certain amount of time to fulfil his obligations, or, if he can’t, to return the goods and normalise the situation … before I seek to bring the wrath of heaven down on his head. 

Both Gene and I tried to help the travelling trio because I was initially called upon by Alyssa to do so, but I have no inclination to suddenly become a henchman. I’ll deal with Tyler in my own way and time.

I’m sorry to hear that Alyssa and Tyler didn’t get on the bus. Maybe I’ll be getting a phone-call at midnight again.

                         Best wishes,

                                                Martin

My only other direct contact I’ve had with the Titfords was to help James get his car, broken down and in storage at my place for over a month, going and underway on 2 September 2010.

James, brought down from Hikurangi by Maori warden and friend, Daniel, to install a new air-flow meter sensor, so that the car could finally be driven home.

The new fuel pump in the car had been purchased using funds from the illicit selling of my very tidy Nissan Avenir station wagon to a tow-truck company.

If I were to pursue any action with the police for the prosecution of Tyler Jackson, it would also have to include Alyssa and James, who were complicit in the ongoing fraud and lies told to me.

IN SUMMARY: 

I intimated to Allan Titford in several conversations between 27 and 29 July 2010 that he needed to sort out the mess and havoc that his kids were leaving in their wake. They were fast becoming chronic liars and deceitful con-artists.

Martin Doutré

These events were also directly witnessed by Gene Doutré and, to a lesser degree, Alain Doutré and Barry Taylor, as well as others who can be named.