‘Well,’ said Ralston, ‘there was a lot of material I didn’t use . . .’
Judge Inglis, in her ruling, made only passing reference to Ralston. She wrote, ‘In the final analysis I did not gain much assistance from his evidence.’
Her 35-page report found against Hallwright. It concluded that the firm had suffered reputational damage, and that Hallwright’s dismissal was justifiable. It was impossible that he could have stayed on after his criminal conviction. Hallwright had blustered that it didn’t impair his ability to do his job. It was as though he were asking, what’s driving over an angry Korean got to do with investment advice? But there was another, stronger question at stake. Who would want to do business with someone who drove over an angry Korean? Hallwright wore that cloth of shame: a scarlet letter.
7
After everything — the botched getaway on Mt Eden Road, the trial, the sacking, the doomed appeals to get his job back — what was left of Guy Hallwright’s life? He estimated he spent about $400,000 on legal fees, but wasn’t poor. He said he lived off interest on his investments. Was he budgeting? He said, ‘I’m not in a position where I have to be that careful.’
No one had offered work. All he had was spare time. He bicycled about 30 kilometres a day. He repaired a couple of guitars. He listened to music — he was a fan of King Crimson, Small Faces, Them, Gram Parsons, John Mayer, The White Stripes. He read the classics — Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby (‘which confirms my belief it’s his finest work’), and had taken on Proust. He meditated. The pile in Parnell was sold, and he moved into his sister’s house in Pakuranga.
Had his life collapsed?
‘I’m an optimistic kind of guy. But from the outside you might say that. Yeah. But it’s that old Chinese thing, isn’t it? In every crisis there’s an opportunity. I’m not sure what the opportunity is yet. I live in hope.’
Juliet’s evidence at Employment Court was revealing of his psychological state. She talked of someone who was ‘short-tempered’, ‘shattered’, receiving counselling, ‘falling apart’. She, too, was broken. Her pretty face hinted at someone who had once been animated and vivacious. But now she breathed hard, and wept. She said, ‘Guy pops off into his study and doesn’t tell me what he’s done all day, and I don’t question him about it.’
After Peter Churchman almost reluctantly tore her to shreds in cross-examination, she sat beside her husband, who stroked her arm for a brief second. It was the touch of a stranger. Afterwards, she left alone, and walked across the road to St Patrick’s Cathedral.
I spoke to her for a minute. She looked as though she was going to cry.
Hallwright said, ‘There’s long-standing stuff that’s got nothing to do with this. Tensions.’
Was he happy?
‘No. No.’
Was he depressed?
‘I’m pretty knocked about. It’s been a shattering process. There’s been days when it’s been difficult to summon the energy to get out of bed.’
I’d heard Hallwright described by someone who knew him as a person who didn’t know who or what he was any more.
‘Hmm. Someone who probably doesn’t know where he is would be more accurate.’
Had his life become a tragedy?
‘It’s terrible to think of applying a word like that to your own life. But yeah. It probably is tragic. And traumatic. For everyone involved. I deeply regret what happened to Mr Kim. I could have done better. But I didn’t, so that’s the breaks.
‘I also very much regret the effect on the family. It’s put them through a hell of a lot of stress, and that was my fault. And Forsyth Barr, too — we argue about who should have done what, and we find ourselves in court on opposite sides, but I’m sure it’s been a very unhappy thing for them to have to deal with as well. And I regret that. Lots of regrets.’
What did he have to say to Sung Jin Kim?
‘Just . . . I’m sorry about his injuries and I hope he’s recovering from them as well as he can. It was an unfortunate day for both of us. He knows that both of us had a hand in it. I wish him well.’ It was said in such a dead voice.
Tina Symmans, in her statement to the Employment Relations Authority, said her advice to Hallwright would have been for him to visit Kim in hospital, ‘and show real concern’. Kim shouted at me, ‘He must come here and say sorry!’
That wasn’t going to happen. Perhaps it wasn’t lack of concern so much as some deep and entrenched gormlessness. Hallwright was at once sensitive and dense.
We talked again about 8 September 2010, when Hallwright and Kim crossed paths. Could he see the scene? ‘Yep. Absolutely. His car screeching to a halt in the middle of the road is etched into my memory.’
What else?
‘His face when he turned to look at me. It was chilling. It was chilling because it was . . . it was menacing in a deadpan, impassive kind of way. I was very apprehensive at that stage that he was involved in some . . . that he was part of something, he was some kind of godfather figure, some kind of mafia. That’s what I thought. It scared the hell out of me. It was a sudden realisation that I had gone into something way too deep.’
I asked him, ‘Are you a racist?’
‘I don’t think so,’ he laughed. ‘No. I’ve worked with people of Asian descent. When I go on holiday, I often go to Asia.’
What a hopeless reply. I said to him, ‘Instead of only saying “I am so sorry!”, you insist on saying all these other things. Why?’
‘Well, I am sorry. But you’re asking me how it all happened, and I’m explaining it. There was blame on both sides. He knows, if he’s honest with himself, that he shouldn’t have done what
