Motive: Mr Lyttle Meets Mr Big

Only three countries in the world allow the Mr Big technique to be used. We're one of them.

This episode was first released on 16 June 2023.

Mr Big is a powerful technique that can bring justice to murder victims.

But experts disagree about its effectiveness.

Some support the technique. Others think Mr Big stings exploit people's vulnerabilities and encourage them to lie.

Not all countries use the sting, including the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

In Canada, police employ some surprising and troubling variations on Mr Big to get the accused to confess..

But despite all this, an undercover police team here in New Zealand get approval to run Mr Big on David Lyttle.

Will it work?

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Is this police sting reliable? Is it just?

This episode was first released on 14 June 2023.

When Halcombe builder David Lyttle answers a knock on his door in March 2014, he's drawn into a shadowy organisation with promises of wealth and friendship. David is desperate to join, but learns that first, he has to get the nod from the organisation's boss, Mr Big.

Mr Big asks David about his past. David says he's committed a murder. He shows the boss where he says the body parts are buried.

Then... he's arrested. It was all a police sting!

Police dig up the burial sites. There's nothing there.

Was this a confession?

Is it reliable?

Is it just?

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The Mr Big technique is a powerful tool used to get criminals to confess. But is it fair? Is it just? Or does it lead to false convictions?

This episode was first released on 6 June 2023.

Can the police use a story to get to the truth about a murder?

In 2014, David Lyttle, a struggling builder in the little town of Halcombe, answers a knock at his door. What happens then leads him into a shadowy criminal organisation that offers him friendship, a new job, and riches, in exchange for one thing: honesty.

Pressed by the organisation's boss, David Lyttle confesses to murdering his friend Brett Hall three years earlier. He shows the boss where he buried the body parts. Then, his world explodes. He's arrested and charged with murder. The whole thing was a police sting operation known as "Mr Big". And now David has confessed.

Or has he?

The body parts aren't there. It starts to look like the confession doesn't add up.

How reliable is a confession obtained by dangling these prizes, and where it costs the suspect nothing to make up a story the boss apparently wants to hear?

And how good are we - and are jurors - at working out whether to believe such a confession?

This series follows the prosecution of David Lyttle through to the verdict and its aftermath. We visit the campsite in rugged bushland 30 km from Whanganui where David was building a house for his best friend Brett Hall. We learn that Brett was annoyed at David and believed David was ripping him off. We also find out that Brett was dealing drugs and told people he had a big deal coming up soon. Then he disappeared.

Did Brett fatally fall out with David over a building dispute? Or was he murdered over a drug debt?

The trial looks to be an uphill battle for David Lyttle. There's the confession evidence. The problem that juries almost always convict Mr Big defendants. And the fact that, in order to show the jury how powerful the manipulation was so that they might understand how he came to give a false confession, David is going to have to convince them that he's a liar, a dupe and a willing criminal.

Journalist and lawyer Steven Price looks into the stories and failings of one of Aotearoa's most controversial 'Mr Big' investigations. Mr Lyttle meets Mr Big looks at the evidence pointing to David, and the evidence pointing to a drug killing. We examine the police's astonishing failures to properly disclose evidence to the defence - even when that evidence pointed to another killer. We follow the ups and downs of the trial…

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27 years after she was convicted, the case against Gail Maney for the murder of Deane Fuller-Sandys has collapsed. What happens now?

This episode was first released on 17 August 2024.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Nearly 35 years have passed since Deane Fuller-Sandys went missing.

And 27 years since Gail Maney was accused of ordering a hit on the young West Auckland tyre fitter.

The Police case was that on Gail’s orders, Stephen Stone murdered Deane in the garage of a Henderson house for stealing her drugs and some leathers belonging to her friend Tania Wilson. Police said four other men were then forced to shoot his body. Four other women were made to watch.

A week later, they said, one of those women, Leah Stephens, was raped and murdered by Stone because he feared she would go to the police.

Now, after years of fighting to prove her innocence, Gail Maney’s case has just been through a Court of Appeal hearing. And the only witness who specifically accused Gail of murder, her childhood friend, Tania Wilson, is dead.

Because of this, and many other issues to do with Tania’s accusation, Gail and her co-accused may be about to walk free.

Hosts Amy Maas and Adam Dudding bring you up to date with this latest installment of the Gone Fishing case.

Gone Fishing. Murder. Mayhem...Maybe...

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More rumours emerge, another witness recants and Gail Maney finds new allies in her fight to prove she’s innocent.

This episode was first released on 30 September 2019.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

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A key witness comes forward with new information that could vindicate Gail Maney, and the lead detective reflects on where his investigation might have gone wrong.

This episode was first released on 30 June 2018.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

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As Gail Maney and three others go on trial for murder, flaws in the prosecution case come to light.

This episode was first released on 29 June 2018.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

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The media called him a “stone cold killer”, but the truth about Stephen Stone is a bit more complicated than that.

This episode was first released on 28 June 2018.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

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Two historic murder investigations merge into one. But how can police figure out what actually happened, when their key witnesses keep changing their stories?

This episode was first released on 27 June 2018.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

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A terrified witness contacts police. Revelations about a young woman’s murder force detectives to reconsider everything they thought they knew about the Deane Fuller-Sandys case.

This episode was first released on 26 June 2018.

Read more about the case, watch extended video interviews and keep track of the case with a summary of the characters, a timeline and map here.

Produced in partnership with Stuff.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details