If a murderer can get $270,000 worth of legal aid, then John MacKenzie thinks he should get legal aid to sue the people who took his late son's heart.
"I'm not seeking legal aid as a gift. I'm seeking it as a loan; it will be repaid," Mr MacKenzie said in the High Court at Wellington yesterday.
Mr MacKenzie, who is nearly 80, said he would repay the money from his national superannuation if necessary.
"They granted Clayton Weatherston $275,000 in legal aid and he admitted killing Sophie Elliott," Mr MacKenzie said.
Mr MacKenzie's son, Kenneth, died after a motorbike crash in 1987.
The family refused to allow his heart to be used for a transplant but it was finally confirmed in 2005 that it was removed and at least one valve was transplanted into a 16-year-old girl.
Mr MacKenzie has spent 10 years trying to find out what happened to his son's heart after life-support was turned off.
He has been told Kenneth died before heart transplants were performed in New Zealand.
Mr MacKenzie is suing for a "significant sum" but so far he has been denied state-funded legal aid for a lawyer to argue his case because the chance of success was considered so small that it should not be granted.
The lawyer for the Legal Services Commissioner, Duncan MacKenzie, said legal aid could not be granted because John MacKenzie did not have legal standing to bring the claim and it was begun too late.
Justice Dobson reserved his decision.
John MacKenzie says he will ask the Court of Appeal directly if the High Court refuses him permission to appeal against the legal aid decision.
He said he was doing it only because he believed in justice.
"I can't let my son down. I am just not going to do it."
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8411159/Murderer-cited-in-bid-for-legal-aid
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