Allan Titford’s release on parole has put the spotlight back on the case that unravelled after a jury found he had burned down his own home and blamed Te Roroa.
This week, the Parole Board approved Titford’s release on his 10th application after he served nearly 13 years of his 24-year sentence for 39 offences, including arson, perjury, sexual violation and prolonged domestic violence.
As the case returns to public attention, Native Affairs’ landmark 2-part investigation, What Lies Beneath, remains an important record of how those false allegations were exposed.
Native Affairs: What Lies Beneath - Part One
Native Affairs: What Lies Beneath - Part Two
For years, Allan Titford portrayed himself as a farmer under siege. He claimed Te Roroa had terrorised his family, shot his livestock and burned down his home. His allegations became part of a wider public debate about Māori land claims and Treaty settlements.
That narrative unravelled in 2013, when a Whangārei jury found Titford guilty, exposing a very different account from the one many New Zealanders had come to believe.
The convictions broke down the public image Titford had built since the late 1980s.
Court evidence showed that Titford had burned down his own home and killed his own livestock as part of an attempt to secure a Crown buyout and damage Te Roroa’s Waitangi Tribunal claim.
Native Affairs examined those claims in detail in its 2014 two-part...
Senator Angkhana Neelapaijit has filed a police complaint against people she alleges spread false information about her on social media in connection with a fatal ambush in Narathiwat province in ...