The police's illegal raid on Nicky Hager's home has got even more expensive:
Nicky Hager’s home was raided by Police in October 2014. The raid was part of an investigation into the source of Nicky Hager’s book, Dirty Politics. In December of last year, the High Court ruled that the warrant that was used for the raid was “fundamentally unlawful”. The Police are not appealing that decision.
Nicky Hager’s daughter was the only one home when the Police turned up to raid the house. She had to stay and watch the 10-hour raid of her home. The Police search included a search of her bedroom and private belongings. The Police seized and cloned her phone and laptop. The laptop was kept by the Police for over four months. This all happened two weeks before she was due to submit her end-of-degree University papers.
The Police have agreed to pay Nicky Hager’s daughter damages and her costs. They have also agreed to destroy all copies of her information taken during the raid and copied. On that basis, his daughter has agreed to discontinue her proceedings against the Police.
This is on top of quarter of a million dollars in interim costs, and the main suit is still ongoing. When you factor in the cost of the police's lawyers, we're already well over a million dollars, and that's without even thinking about final damages.
But again, this isn't real money, its taxpayer's money. Those actually responsible for this abuse of power, from the police officers who authorised it and carried it up to John Key, who was ultimately responsible, won't be paying a cent. And given past police practices, it is unlikely they will ever be held to account, despite abusing their powers and costing us a large amount of money.
