Life Sentence - The Crewe Murders

Why would Muldoon take it upon himself on the basis of that report to pardon a man who'd twice been convicted of murder? And the answer I think lies a lot in the complexity of the Muldoon psyche...

– Lawyer and former Prime Minister David Lange on Robert Muldoon's decision to pardon Arthur Allan Thomas in 1979

They were just looking after the status quo, one man versus the system...there's only one man, keep him inside and look after the system. That's what the judges did in those days.

– Arthur Allan Thomas on the result of his second criminal trial

Something like a moan went up...it was a cry of disbelief and pain and anger, all rolled into one.

– Journalist Pat Booth on the extraordinary scenes in court after Arthur Allan Thomas was convicted of murder a second time

It went beyond the dispassionate presentation of a Crown argument for conviction and became a crusade.

– Lawyer and ex Prime Minister David Lange on the Crown's determination to convict Arthur Allan Thomas of double murder

Chin went up again, I thought "here's my go"...

– Arthur Allan Thomas on hearing that he would face a second criminal trial

It should never, ever have happened. It was a life sentence for us all.

– Pat Veysey, uncle to Vivien Harrison (formerly Thomas), and leader of the Thomas Retrial Committee

You tend to submerge your personality and the type of person that you are, you become just a figurehead really, around which a lot of things are done...

– Vivien Harrison, ex-wife of Arthur Allan Thomas, describes the grind of being closely associated with the case

I thought I'd win it. I've had far more difficult trials than his, and they'd been acquittals. But what I hadn't really considered was the ruthlessness of the approach of the crown to ensure that they checkmated anything I had.

– Kevin Ryan, who defended Arthur Allan Thomas in the second criminal case