Acquitted

John Banks has been acquitted on appeal of filing a false electoral return. This doesn't mean that he didn't accept two $25,000 donations from Kim Dotcom which he subsequently misdeclared as "anonymous", but that the evidence presented against him did not meet the required standard to prove that he did so knowingly, and therefore he could not be convicted of it. So, having taken over an important private prosecution, Crown Law indeed fucked it up. Heckuva job you're doing there guys. The integrity of our electoral system against corrupt politicians is safe with you.

Meanwhile, Banks is acting as if he's been vindicated and is innocent. Legally, that's certainly the case. But morally? Not so much. His evidence in court made it clear that he had structured his affairs so he could pretend that donations were anonymous when he knew damn well where they came from. While the prosecution failed to prove that knowledge in this specific case, his own words should condemn him, and rule him out from any future political career.

Finally, now that the legal process is over, perhaps we can see the report on the police handling of the case that the Independent Police Conduct Authority promised us?