COMESKEY COURT WORK 'MISLEADING'

The lawyer who said he arranged the return of the stolen Waiouru war
medals has been criticised in the Court of Appeal for "inept and
misleading" case handling.

In a judgment issued this week, the court repeatedly criticises Chris
Comeskey.

Mr Comeskey represented Xiao Hui Huang, who was found guilty of having
methamphetamine for supply and conspiring to supply it, after customs
and police found eight kilograms of drugs, estimated to be worth about
$8 million. She was jailed for 12 years.

In an appeal, Mr Comeskey said the Crown had ambushed Huang at her
trial in the High Court at Wellington nearly a year ago. The Court of
Appeal rejected the criticism and dismissed Huang's appeals against
conviction and sentence.

Mr Comeskey has rejected comments the court made in its judgment. "It
is a personal attack on myself, that much is obvious from the language
peppered throughout the decision," he told The Dominion Post. "I
consider that on that occasion I was treated with the utmost
rudeness," he said of the hearing last month that led to the decision.

Mr Comeskey is back before one of the same judges today but he said he
would not be muzzled or confined by conservative custom. "The status
quo is not good enough for me, it might be good enough for everyone
else who grows legs on their belly."

He said the court had missed the whole point of the appeal. The
hearing was recorded and he had asked for a copy of it to show its
tone as he prepared for the next step in the case.

The court's reasons, which Justice John Wild gave on behalf of Justice
Susan Glazebrook, Justice John Hansen, and himself, say Mr Comeskey
misled it. "Optimistic would be a charitable description of the last
of Mr Comeskey's submissions. Misleading would perhaps be a more
accurate one."

On another point it says: ". . . it emerged that Mr Comeskey's
submissions to us on this third ground were more misleading than inept".

Also: "Having let that evidence go to the jury unchallenged, it is as
inept as it is inappropriate now for Mr Comeskey to contend that
justice miscarried at the trial."

Mr Comeskey also represents Nai Yin Xue, who is alleged to have
murdered his wife in Auckland and abandoned his three-year-old
daughter in Australia.