Jago to claim ‘miscarriage of justice’

The former president of the ACT party, Tim Jago, will argue that he suffered a miscarriage in the court of appeal in June.

Jago was considered guilty of sexually abusing two teenage boys he knew through a sports club in the 1990s, after a one -week jury trial in Auckland last year.

He was convicted of eight accusations of indecent assault and arrested for two and a half years by Judge David Sharp.

The orders of suppression of provisional names prevented the media from identifying Jago for more than two years until he abandoned his struggle for ongoing confidentiality in February.

Jago maintains his innocence and had already signaled that he planned to appeal his convictions and sentences in the court of appeal.

Today, Jago’s lawyer, Ian Brookie, confirmed that the appeal had been established for a hearing on June 17 in Auckland.

The reasons for the appeal are that “an error of justice” occurred because the jury reached an irrational verdict and the judge’s summary was unbalanced and incomplete delay, the case of defense and propensity.

Jago will also argue that the imposed prison sentence was manifestly excessive, with home arrest to the appropriate sentence.

Survivor Paul Oliver has already talked about the relief he felt when Jago was finally named and how the pending appeal makes it harder to move on with his life.

Responding to today’s update, he and his wife Lauren Oliver said the case continued to have a huge impact on those who were abused.

“It seems a long time wasting and expenses for Jago’s vanity project,” they said.

“Jago was not eligible for detention at home because he was still insisting on his innocence. That’s why the sentence of prison. He has not received sentence reductions.”

They said the true abortion of justice was Jago still offering a high level lawyer when their victims received “insignificant sums” in the sentence.

Justice abortions are more associated with innocent people to be convicted and punished for a crime, as seen recently in the case of Peter Ellis.

More generally, the Ministry of Justice statistics released in 2023 showed that 893 people had a total of 2303 nullified or annulled convictions and sent since 2012.