A news release from Awatere Club follows:

Spying victims to share their story in Hamilton 

Christchurch couple Dr Kate Dewes and Commander Robert Green, who riveted the nation in July with a story like a Bond movie plot when they appeared before Parliament’s intelligence and security committee, will share their story in Hamilton on Tuesday September 24.

Hamilton’s Awatere Club has organised a special public meeting at 10am in Fairfield Baptist Chapel, 1101 Heaphy Terrace, to hear the couple’s intriguing story involving a murder, nuclear weapons and naval intelligence. 

The couple appeared before Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee to argue against law changes that have extended the surveillance and cyber-security functions of the GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau). They are co-directors of the NZ Peace Foundation’s Disarmament and Security Centre and they claim that their mail, phone calls and e-mail have been watched and tampered with for some 30 years as a result of their anti-nuclear advisory work.

Robert Green, a retired Royal Navy commander, has written a book, A Thorn in their Side, about his aunt Hilda Murrell, a noted British rose grower and an anti-nuclear activist who was abducted and murdered in 1984 shortly before she was scheduled to appear before the Sizewell B Inquiry, the first public planning inquiry into a British nuclear power plant.  A new edition released last month in the UK claims to shed doubt on the conviction secured in the case, and sparked an early day motion by British MP Austin Mitchell seeking debate in the House of Commons on the subject.

Awatere President, Crystal Beavis, said the Club was responsible for bringing some exciting speakers to Hamilton and that the club’s speakers’ convenor, management consultant Judith Cartwright, had scored a coup in arranging for Dr Kate Dewes and Commander Robert Green to speak here.

 The September 24 meeting will be open to the public and a small door charge of $5 will be levied to cover costs including refreshments.  Copies of A Thorn in their Side will be available for sale at the meeting.  

ENDS

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