1 My name is Timothy Aperahama Morrison. And on September the 12th 2012, I was charged with the manslaughter of Robert Harris. I am innocent. This is my story. (MYSTERIOUS MUSIC) Copyright Able 2017 The night of July 28 2012 started off like any other night. I was working at the Salvation Army Drug and Alcohol Rehab. I arrived at 11.30 that night. And I'm` And I'm there, and then I hear this` like, this screaming ` like, um, swearing. (FAINT SHOUTING IN BACKGROUND) Then I hear this` this real loud smash ` like glass breaking. (SMASH!) It's echoing through all` all` all the hallways, and` and I don't know where it's coming from, so I rush down into the foyer, and that's where I see the door's been kicked in. And, um, I go` I go, 'Oh shit.' So I grab a torch, and I go out into the front car park, and then I see this guy walking across the street, and as he's walking across the street, he tries to kick this taxi. (CAR HONKS) MAN: Hey! I go, 'Oh, that's him!' I go up to him, and I go` I go, um, 'Bro,...' I see what you did there, mate. '...I know what you done, man.' Um, you need to come with me, eh. 'We'll go` We'll go up to` back up to the office, and I'm gonna ring the police, bro.' And he` And he starts muttering stuff and swearing at me, and I go, 'Bro, you need to come with me.' Bro, calm down. Then... (WHOOSH!) ...he just steps into me, man. Like, (STAMMERS) I don't... Yeah, I just wasn't ready for it. He just` He just stepped into me. I thought he was gonna hit me. I bring my hand up to push him away. He falls back, and then he hits` and his head hits really hard. (TENSE MUSIC) Get up, man. Come on. I'm a singer in a rock and roll covers band. We'd just been playing, and we were on our way home. I saw, like, a guy crouched over another man who had his legs, like, askew, and he was lying down. This car comes past, and they say, 'Do you need some help?' And I go, 'Yeah.' There was this poor man on the ground, and` and, um, a man on a phone stressed out, talking to an ambulance. You could tell he was trying to, like, hold it together enough to, like, get help. (SIRENS WAIL) The ambulance arrived, and she lifted him up, and he kind of` like, blood was pouring out of his head. They started asking, uh, Tim what had happened. At that point, the injuries that were inflicted or suffered, um, particularly from the fall to the ground, were serious. There was a head injury. Ah, it was a person that was borderline, um, unconscious. Now he's got some blood coming out of his mouth, um, and` and he's unconscious. But apart from that, he's` his airway's clear, and he's breathing. And I'm thinking, 'OK, cool. We'll just` We'll just keep him stable, 'and then, um, uh, help will be here soon.' (TENSE MUSIC) Then, out of nowhere, man,... this guy comes out. I don't know where he was, man. I don't know where he came from. But he just comes out of nowhere. He was just drunk as a monkey. SLURS: I saw the whole thing. And he's ranting and raving and swearing at me. 'I seen you. I get it. You didn't have to hit him! Da, da, da!' And then` And then I kinda lost my cool, and I told him to shut up. Luckily, um, one of` one of the other, um, guys that stopped in the car, they jumped in in the middle and went, 'Just both of youse, quieten down.' We were quiet from then on. We were standing around. Ivan, I think, was on the phone by then. Tim was trying to, like, hold it together enough to get help. He knew what he'd done was bad. Hello? At about 3am on the 29th of July, police arrived at the scene shortly after the ambulance. MAN: This guy, right here. MAN 2: Hey, buddy. What's happened? One of the first things that strikes me about the case is that it seems very early on, uh, there was a very clear, uh, focus on` on Tim Morrison, and` and that's not unreasonable in the circumstances. So, when I found out... what they charged Tim with,... I thought, 'Nah, this is all wrong.' I couldn't believe it. Whoa, uh, yeah. Uh, the bad time's comin'. But the thing was it was so good up till then, you know? (TAPE REWINDS) I had a job. Like, I had a job working on the weekends. Um, it fit in with study. I was going to school. I was, uh, at AUT in my second year of, uh, Paramedicine. I was going to uni Monday to Friday, and then Friday night, Saturday night, I'd be working. So I` I was` I was doing well, man. I was` I` I had` I had money. Well, I didn't have heaps of money, but ah, I was` I wasn't` I wasn't going hungry. MAN: Uh, I met Tim in our first year. His passion kind of, I don't know, surprised me. I thought, 'He's a good man to be around.' (LAUGHS) And then from there, we just studied together and, yeah, became mates and good study buddies, and, yeah. He's not` (CHUCKLES) He's v` He's quite intelligent, my cousin. Quite intelligent. MATT: He's like an A student striving for an A+. Within our year, he` he would tutor us if we needed it. Um, he tutored me, which was good. I'd turn up to classes early. I'd do all the extra tutorials. I'd go home. I'd start reading up on stuff. I'd like` Yeah, and my grades were doing well, man. Um, then` Then that` Then that problem happened. I'm there. I'm talking to a police officer. And then, um, the paramedic walks up to me. And she goes, 'Oh, did you hit him? Did you hit him with your fist, 'or did you hit him with` with a torch?' And I go, 'Nah, nah. I hit him with my hand.' I pointed to my hand. 'Oh, this guy. I came over here.' I go with, uh, the` uh, a cop, uh, back to the office. I give him my statement, and, um, halfway through my statement, he gets a phone call, and then he's says, 'Tim, the patient's now status one. 'I have to end this interview because we've got some detectives coming over.' TIM MCKINNEL: Status one is critical, and his life is at risk. Between 4.32 and 5.25am that morning, our detective arrived at the scene and was instructed that Tim Morrison was the main suspect. The detectives come over. They take me down, um, Auckland Central. I might just get you to, uh, draw on here, sort of, about where you first saw him. When I first saw him? Well, it must` it must have been there, cos that's where he was, I think ` right there. So he would have went like that. And I came down and went that way. OK. Yeah. All this time, (STAMMERS) I'm` I'm` I'm... Like, I'm... I'm tired by then. I'm buggered. And they're interviewing me, and there's contention now that` that, uh, I said I hit him with my fist, and they've got me using a fist. 'And then` then he just steps in, and I think he's gonna hit me, so I just go...' The next time they're asking me, they've got me using a hand. So you've hit him with your left hand? Left hand. And how was your hand when you hit him? Like this. I hit him with this part. And where did it connect on his...? This side. Right here. Well, I thought that it was just a matter of processing and everything would be sweet, because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. Is there anything that you want to add? Um, just, um` I'd, uh... Is he all right? Um, I'm not sure at the moment. They then get me, uh` They take my clothes, put me into a white jumpsuit and take my DNA. Um, yeah, it was` It was a mess. And, uh, I went back the following Monday, the 3rd of July, back to uni. And then for the next, um, day, I'm just` yeah, I'm just...(EXHALES) walking around like a zombie. At 7.38am on the 11th of September, Tim arrived at the police station and was escorted to an interview room. And they told me that Robert Harris had died. Bro! Bro! 1 At the point Mr Harris died, all options are on the table ` um, that is murder, manslaughter or no criminal charges whatsoever. So if somebody dies in an incident, it's` it's up to the police to establish whether or not, um, there's a criminal liability there. And then I get a call from the` the detective that's running, uh` running the case, and, uh, he` he says, uh,... 'Yeah, Tim, uh, we'd like you to come and have a chat.' (UNEASY MUSIC) And then we sat down. And he goes, 'I'd like to show you, the video of your first interview.' I went, 'Yeah, cool.' So we sat there, we watched the whole interview. And then after he finishes, he goes, 'OK, well, I'd like to do another interview, and I'd like to ask you a few questions.' And I go, 'Well, I'm gonna, uh` I think I'm gonna need a lawyer for this, mate. 'Um, so, yeah, I'm` I'm just gonna wait until I get a lawyer, and then` then we can chat about this.' And then he reached over, grabbed the phone, and he goes, 'Well, we've got one that's available right now.' And` And` And I was thinking, 'You've got a lawyer for me already?' And I went, 'Hang on! Hang on! Um, no, I've already spoken to someone. And we're organising a lawyer now.' And then he was going, 'Well, can she` can she appear for you in High Court?' And stuff like that. And I went, 'How do I know? Like, I` I haven't even met her yet.' And he goes, 'Well, this` this guy can.' And then he's pointed to the one that he wanted to ring, and I go, 'Well, listen. We'll deal with this one first.' And then the lawyer got back to me, and she said, 'Don't say anything till I get there.' I came back the next day. Um, I met up with (STAMMERS) with my lawyer who was gonna represent me. We went inside. Um, uh, they went out into another room, and they had a conversation. Now, I wasn't privy to that conversation, and` and, um, I don't know what was said. But then she comes back, and she says, 'Um,... 'they're gonna charge you with manslaughter. 'And the maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison.' Manslaughter is an incredibly broad category, and` and all it means is that you have committed death by way of an unlawful act. It's a serious charge, and it's a homicide charge, and there's` there's little doubt that it's, uh, one of the more serious charges in` in our criminal law. The defendant here admits to striking the deceased. That` That's basically and open-and-shut case, then. The` The sole question is` If he admits to an assault, if there is proof that that assault caused death, then the only thing left as a question in this case is ` was that assault committed in circumstances of self-defence? MAN: Today is Wednesday. It's the 12th of September 2012. I am speaking to you today about the death of Robert Harris. I don't wish to answer any questions. Yeah. I-I-I've been directed not to, and I don't want to. OK. It was a disbelief, man. Like, (STAMMERS) I didn't actually believe it. Like, I was thinking, 'Yeah, they're gonna come to their senses sooner or later, cos I didn't do anything.' When you spoke to Detective Constable, you, uh, told her that you struck Rob Harris with the palm of your hand. Mm-hm. During your initial recount, you said you hit Robert Harris, and when you said you hit him, you formed a fist and went like this. It appears to me the two critical things that the police relied on in deciding to charge Tim, uh, were his own statement and the key witness who said he saw, uh, Tim run up and, without any interaction, strike Mr Harris. We spoke to a witness who` who saw the events. He said there was not any conversation in between either you or the other person. That, in one continuous motion, you ran across the road, caught up with the person, struck him, and he collapsed. I was innocent, like, because I believed, like, he was gonna come into me. And not just the, like` And not just that I was trying to protect myself, but` but I'm innocent because I didn't want to hurt a man. I've been in violent situations, (STAMMERS) and I understand that, and there was nothing about this that was like that. If` If I wanted to hurt him, I would've beat the crap out of him with a torch. You know, Tim Morrison, um, I don't think it's any secret that he had a criminal history. 1 I was born on March 26th 1967 in, uh, Whakatane Hospital. I'm half Maori, half Tongan. I lived with my, uh, grandparents ` my koro and my nana. Life was good, man. Like, um, you know, my` my grandparents, they spoke Maori at home. Uh, it was a really loving and, uh, nurturing environment. When I was 6, um, my mum came and got me. My grandparents didn't want to give me up. But (LAUGHS) my mum and, um, my stepfather, they found out that they could get money uh, from the government for me, and so they decided to take me back. Fuck off! The things that happened in that house, (SIGHS)... no, it... uh, it wasn't that good, man. My stepdad used to, um,... beat me. I got my head shoved through a window a couple of times. My mum, she became party to it, and she` she did the same. Fuck, I'm gonna get you, you little shit. (SINISTER MUSIC) For a child of 7, 8, 9, sometimes I was that sore. It wasn't funny. I remember being at Richmond Road Primary and being one of the few kids that got singled out to come into, um, a special class every` every Monday morning, and they'd give us problems to solve. Uh, and I loved going there. For some reason, my parents went, um, 'Nah, you're not going now.' And then, uh` then I didn't go. We didn't have much money, and because of that, kids are the way they are. And I ended up getting teased a lot again; I ended up getting in a lot of fights. I ended up, like` Um, I ended up not wanting to come to school. Uh, and` and because of that, I stopped going. And once I stopped going, that's when I started, um, hanging out on the streets. Yeah, he just changed. He'd changed so much. He was doing his own thing now. He was distant from us. There were many kids like me. We all grew up with this mentality of anger. This mentality of confusion. This mentality of just trying to take something, because we never had anything. And so there` there were a lot of gangs. There was maybe six gangs on my street. I got to hang out with people that I knew, that` that were like me. And then we'd go and do stuff like burglaries and` and breaking into cars and stuff. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) I ended up getting caught doing a burglary and went to Owairaka Boy's Home. Mum taught him at Nga Tapuwae College, and, um, she` she really liked him. She thought he was a really bright kid. I met Mary. She was, uh, my English teacher at school. Oh man. I don't know. She saw something in me that I` I didn't see. Um, and then, uh, I remember getting, um, arrested. I was about 14, um, and I got arrested for burglary. But she came to Owairaka Boy's Home to visit me. The court were gonna put me in` under supervision so I'd become state ward, and then she stuck her hand up and said, 'No, he can come live with me.' My first recollection of Tim is, um` I just have a memory of him, um... He actually took some of the solvents, um, off the laundry shelf and was using them to get high. There was a self-destructive side to Tim. There was a side to Tim that was deeply lacking in... confidence. And then he got into some serious trouble where he got caught by the police, throwing Molotov cocktails at a bus. I think it... Yeah, the two households` Um, for Tim to cross that bridge from his household to ours, it's almost like we got in a bit late. It seemed like, yeah, there was too much damage for him to settle with us. She did everything she could for me. She, uh, enrolled me at another school. Um, she used to, um, be really proactive in helping me with any kind of studies and that. Just the amount of support they gave me was amazing. But I'd gone that far down that rabbit hole... that I was just gonna be another statistic, man. I remember getting sentenced to prison, and, uh, one` one of these guys I knew, he sees me, and he flashes me a gang sign and goes, 'Hey, bro. How you doing?' And I went, 'Oh yeah. Hey, bro.' And I` I` I didn't flash anything back, but because I went, 'Hey,' and he'd flashed me the sign, everyone thought I was in that gang. (LAUGHS) And, um... (STAMMERS) And so I was kind of like, um` like, recruited by proxy, kind of thing, you know? (LAUGHS) And because, um, everyone` everyone was in a gang, I just went along with it, and then all of a sudden, I was in it and then prospecting and then` and then finally patched. They were the quintessential gang that said, 'You need to be as antisocial as you can 'in order to raise in the ranks.' It was not only a rite of passage but kinda like a badge of honour to actually go to prison. You had to go to prison, and` and you had to have it like your second home, um, to actually be part of this gang. It was` It was crazy, man. But it was also invigorating for a young man who was confused and angry. It gave me, um, uh, a way to understand... who I was. This is the me that repays for all the stuff that's happened to me. It doesn't matter if I don't get the right person. What matters is that I start delivering out. I start meeting out the injustices that were put on me. The group I was in` The gang I was in, it was like any other gang. We brand ourselves with that` with that insignia. I was in prison when I had it done. Um, we had, um, a pen spring, um, tied around a match, and we used paint stainers. I was proud to have it on me, and it remained on my body for a number of years. There was one pivotal moment in Mount Eden Prison. I'm sitting in my cell with my cellmate, and we're` we're both in this gang. And we, um, light up a joint. And I was sitting there,... looking through these bars, out at the sky, looking around my cell, and I'm thinking,... 'This is my fuckin' life, man. 'This is all I'm ever gonna be. (STAMMERS) 'And I'm gonna be sitting in this cell, 'stoned off my head, looking through bars for the rest of my life.' And it was that moment that I went, 'No, there's gotta be something better, man.' In terms of leaving that gang, I went in, and I said, 'I'm going.' And it cost me one hell of a beating. They, uh` They kicked the crap out of me, and they threw me out of a moving vehicle on a motorway, hoping someone would run me over. Don't get me wrong ` I don't just turn over like that. It's never happened like that for me in my life. I never` I never have, um, these pivotal moments where life just automatically changes. It's an evolution. But over a period of time, I stopped doing what I'm doing, and I changed tact. (GRUNTS) Um, I came to a decision, uh, to study paramedicine. First off, they said I couldn't do it. And then, um, I went into one of their classes one day. Uh, I got in there, and there were no Maori. There were no brown skins in there. And` And I went, 'Yeah, I gotta be here, man.' Um, (STAMMERS) and that was it. It was a long, arduous task to get in there. Yeah, and then that shit happened. (TAPE REWINDS) 'Come on. Don't push me, man. What's your problem?' 'Hey, leave me alone.' 'Bro, what's happening?' I thought that this part of my life was over. But... this one incident brought me straight back there. My lawyer said that they're gonna charge me tomorrow with manslaughter. I need` But they're not gonna oppose bail. And, um` And I went,... 'Yeah, bullshit.' And` And I was thinking, 'I'm going to court tomorrow, and I'm gonna end up in the Mount.' Like I said, I had` I'd been brand` I branded myself with the insignia of this gang. And I can't have this on my arm. I'm gonna get it from both ends. I'm gonna get it from` from other gangs, and I'm gonna get it (STAMMERS) from this gang. And so I rang up my cousin that night. I said, 'Bro, um, I need you to do a cover-up for me.' My cousin, he does ta moko. So we go down there. We spend, uh, a good part of the night just covering it up, and it gets done. This was not a good time for me. Um, I was very, very anxious. 1 The police charged me with manslaughter, and the maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison. He wasn't guilty. He wasn't guilty. I know Tim... enough to know that this is not his... character. Go to the, um, Auckland District Court. Uh, I get charged with manslaughter, and, um, they don't oppose bail, and I get out. The criminal justice process is quite a` quite a time-consuming and lengthy one. There will be, um, numerous hearings over a period of months. And a serious case like homicide, manslaughter, um, you would expect between 12 and 24 months to pass between the date of charging and` and actual physical trial. I had to hand in my passport; um, had to stay, uh, where I was living; um, not to, um, contact any of the witnesses. GEORGE: During that time, it was, you know, quite hard on him. At this time, my mum, she's, uh` she's been diagnosed with cancer. Within, I think, about six` six weeks of being diagnosed, she passes away. All the while, he's trying to do his studies for course. Not a very good time. My work ` of course they couldn't keep me on. They said, 'Tim, you're just gonna have to go on leave.' I had no money. All my clinical shifts on the ambulance, I couldn't do them. I was living on rice. Boiled rice. Um, and, uh, going around whanau's houses, and, um, I'd get embarrassed going around there too often and eating their food, so I just stopped. And` And during this period, I became very depressed, man. It's, um... I became, like, yeah, man, just` just beat down ` like when I was a kid, man. He was stuck, basically. He had to figure out whether he should continue to study or devote all his time to this case. But he wound up doing both, which was really... you know, it's unbelievable. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) I'm now unemployed. Everyone thinks I've done it. My mum's passed away. And I've got four weeks till I hit my end-of-year exams. The thing is I had a goal. I had a purpose. I had a belief. (STAMMERS) And this stuff... This thing here wasn't gonna prevent me from doing what I was supposed to be doing. Like, it's gonna make it` it's gonna make it frickin' hard, man. But what I've gotta do is I've just gotta get up today, and I'm gonna walk to uni, and I've just gotta do it. And that's it. And that's what I had to do every day. And` And that got me to scrape by. Yeah, man. It was just... It was just a frickin' mess, man. I was angry that` that they were actually doing this. Then it was a sense of real helplessness, because my lawyer didn't seem to be doing anything. My lawyer sends me an email saying, 'Well, Tim, their case is strong, and if you plead guilty now, you can get three years, 'thee and a half years.' I'm thinking, 'What?' I got back all the evidence ` the full disclosure. And I looked in there. And there's no way, um, anyone could look at that, look at that stuff and think that I was guilty of anything. They've got this video of the guy, um, in a bottle shop, man, doing exactly what I said he did to me! My first impression of the file is that there were perhaps a few gaps in it. It's clear that quite a lot of work went into, um, assessing what Tim Morrison had said, and he was interviewed repeatedly. The key witness that we're talking about appears to have been given the once over lightly. It seemed like there was this concerted effort by everyone involved to prosecute me. That's what it seemed like. What I did then is I made sure that I kept up to date with everything. I made sure that I knew, um, this file inside and out. I knew that if it came down to it, I` I had to do the whole case for myself. What tends to happen in a criminal investigation is that, um, that a person's criminal history is known to the investigation team, and it inevitably plays a part in an assessment of a person's character. And that's not always unreasonable, but there are` there are occasions where it can unfairly influence an investigation, and I've seen that first-hand. KHYLEE: Following the 31st of July, where the trial date is set down, that trial is set to start, and it actually commences on the 5th of August 2013. I go in there, and I'm sitting in the dock. I'm at a moment now where I have no control over anything. And so rather than` than get caught up in it, what's going on, I'm just gonna go and stare at the floor and wait for my turn. And I remember the Crown's witness, the main witness, he, um` he came on and, uh, he was making out that he'd been in the pub for` for the last 12 hours and was still really sober. And I was lucky that I was staring at the floor cos` cos I wanted to just go, 'Bullshit, man!' GEORGE: The Crown witness seemed unsure of himself a lot of the time. He needed reminding ` constant reminding ` about what had happened. GENEVA: My impression of him that night was that he was inebriated, very aggressive, and had no room to have a conversation or` or rationally assess the situation. Absolutely. I was concerned. All my lawyer did was say, 'Maybe you could've had more beers than what you said you had.' And that's all she did. Um, the` the` And I didn't understand. I was worried Tim was gonna go to prison ` sure. But all I could do was say what I saw. The band members were able to corroborate how drunk the Crown's witness was, which was kinda important, because he was on the stand trying to play down that fact. And then the pathologist went through a statement, and he said, 'Yeah, the deceased had a` had a wound to his right side of his lip, 'and that would be more consistent with a punch.' '...from the accused...' And the judge was` was good. The judge said, 'Well, it could have been an open hand.' And he goes, 'No.' And he goes, 'Why?' And he goes, 'Well, because the force needed to, um, 'drive someone that's coming forward back is that you'd need a greater amount of force.' And then the judge said, 'Well, what if he's drunk?' And then the pathologist went, 'Well, yeah, it could easily happen, then.' And` But my lawyer didn't bring that up. I knew that (SIGHS) I had to... I had to get on the stand, and I had to defend myself. KHYLEE: In the adversarial criminal justice system, if you go on the stand, you'll be subject to cross-examination by people that do that for a living. Very articulate, very clever people can be easily tripped by someone who does that for a living. That` That's what Crown prosecutors and defence counsel do. The defendant here, Mr Morrison, does a fantastic job of defending himself, and he speaks plainly, clearly and answers the questions. The prosecutor, he started, um` he started trying to patronise me and stuff like that. But then he started bringing up issues like, um... Um, he goes, 'Well, what happened?' And I said, 'It happened exactly like that video in Liquorland. 'Um, he stepped into me. I brought my hand up, 'and I caught him along the side of the face, and he fell over.' And he goes, 'Well that's really convenient now that you saw the video.' And I went, 'Well, mate, I said that the first day.' (LAUGHS) 'Months before I even saw the video, the` 'My first statement, you've got it on video of me saying it way before I even saw this video!' There's a part in` under cross-examination from the Crown, uh, where Tim explains that he knows what the law of self-defence is, and I think the Crown is quite taken aback by that. And then it came down to why I wouldn't admit to using my fist instead of my hand. And then I said, 'Well, it comes down to my understanding of the law.' 'Someone can protect themselves, uh, if they feel threatened. 'So it doesn't matter if the hands are opened or closed. 'What matters is the force used is reasonable, and it was reasonable.' I said this because that's what I believe I did. The question of reasonable force is at the heart of self-defence. He think's he's under attack. That's his claim. He thinks he's being assaulted. What's reasonable in those circumstances? Now, that test is put to` put to the jury. When the jury went away, um, I realised that I'd done all I could, and it was out of my hands now, and it was up to them. I'm in that cell, and I'm going, 'I really should, like, be prepared to get used to being in this cell.' There was no real emotion, man. You don't go into prison with emotion, mate. You don't go into prison, um, all caught up in` in emotion about that. I'm trying to make myself... as much of a rock as I can. August the 7th 2013, the jury found me not guilty of manslaughter. (POIGNANT MUSIC) The trial was set down for eight days but only lasted two. The judge appeared to smell a rat early. (LAUGHS) Early in the case. In my opinion, he had directed a lot of questions that` that my lawyer should've. In this particular case, the judge does a very, very good, very clear direction in his summing up to the jury, um, which is to say, 'It's just common sense. If you were in the shoes of the defendant, 'what would we reasonably expect it was OK for you to do to repel that force?' I think Tim Morrison being acquitted is absolutely, on the evidence I've seen, the right result. Um, whether he had to go to trial at all is the more important question, I think. When it was all over, when I was found not guilty, I just` I wasn't angry. Nah. But, oh, I felt exhausted. My mum passed away on the 6th of September, while the case was pending. And, like, I didn't get a chance to mourn her or anything. I didn't` I didn't get a chance (STAMMERS) to, um,... say anything about` about how it was for me to grow up or anything like that. There was none of that because I was too caught up in this. And then before the trial, um, Mary Kate had a stroke. I went and visited her, and we had lunch. It was really important for Mum to keep in contact with Tim, because she loved him. She was ecstatic that I was studying, and I wanted to keep her happy. So I didn't tell her about the court case. We were sitting around the table, and he never mentioned it. I never saw Tim as a problem, and I would've gone to court, had he told us. Absolutely. He never put his problems on to us. Even in her really unwell state, sitting at that table, she thought the world of him. She passed away, I think it was, a month later or something, or two months later. It was like my mum. I didn't have the opportunity to, um... to mourn or anything. (UPBEAT MUSIC) On August the 7th 2014, I graduated. I put my resume out to hundreds and hundreds of jobs, mate. Not one of them got back to me. Not one of them even rang back. The only time I got one interview, and that was with a Maori outfit ` a Maori mental health outfit. The first thing that they said was, 'Tim, we want` You were awesome in the interview, 'but we googled your name, (LAUGHS) and then all this stuff come out, 'and so, yeah, we don't know whether or not we can hire you. 'The only thing is that one woman went to bat for you, and she said, '"Hey, you've presented yourself around, uh, Te Ao Maori in the interview." 'Um, it really resonated with her and, uh, that we needed to give you a shot.' And they gave me a probationary period. And once I got in there, I was working full-time there. I believe Tim could do whatever he wants to do. I'm not surprised that he's a paramedic now. I am surprised... that after all that he's been through, he was managing to do it or he was able to do it. I'm surprised about that. Working as a paramedic is the best job I've ever had. I have a, um... I've got a million and one stories, um, uh, and some funny, some intense. One of my last clinical shifts, uh, for AUT, we go to this woman. I kneel down beside her. She can't talk. I grab an O2 mask. I turn around to listen to her lungs, and she'd already arrested. She's on the couch, like this. We go through the motions, um, knowing that this woman's gonna die. She's gonna die because we're not able to help her. The family are really grateful for us trying, cos they see us going really hard. But from then on, for the next few days, I felt like I really ripped her off, man, you know? Like, um, there was stuff we could do, but I` I wasn't able to do it. And that's when I` I went, 'Man, I got to study medicine.' GEORGE: I think Tim's still quite a way off fulfilling his potential. I think he's, uh` he's... He now wants to become a doctor. When I think about my degree, when I think about my tohu, I think ` and I don't want to sound big-headed ` but there's an opportunity for this tohu to support, um, Maori ` and not just Maori, but anyone living in a marginalised community. I remember one job, I was going to a diabetic ` this old koro out in Mangere. He was coming around, and then I was talking to his son and I was going, 'Oh, how long you been here, bro?' And he goes, 'Aw, I've been here for a while.' And I go, 'Oh yeah. I grew up just down the road, bro.' And then he looked at me and went, 'How the hell did you get to become a paramedic?' And I started laughing my head off, man. (STAMMERS) And I go, 'Bro, I made a decision, and I went back and studied.' And then I gave him my number and said, 'If you need to, ring up. We can discuss things, bro, and we can work this out.' I believe this, where I've come from, and this tohu in particular can help, um, these people. If I hadn't experienced what I've experienced up till today, I don't think I'd be the person I am today. Um, and so for me to look at any kind of aspect, especially those low times, in any kind of derogatory fashion would be to kind of, um... kind of hamstring myself, man. I've learnt to get the good stuff out of it. And I've learnt to nurture that good stuff and actually make it good stuff. 'Nah, nah. That way.' '60-year-old male from White Cross.' My name is Timothy Aparehama Morrison. I am innocent.