Described by former colleagues as one of New Zealand’s best detectives, Cushla Watson, who died of cancer earlier this year aged 72, has been remembered for her stellar work on high-profile investigations and her inspiring interview techniques.
She was best known for her role in helping to identify the French agents involved in the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, sunk while it was moored at Marsden Wharf in Auckland, killing one person.
It was an international incident, and the then 34-year-old detective, one of 66 detectives working on the case, became the first female New Zealand police officer to be sent overseas in an investigative capacity.
She spent several weeks in Switzerland, France and England gathering crucial evidence related to false passports, which linked French spies Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur to the bomb plot and led to their convictions.
Former colleague Dave Pizzini, a Police Association life member, who spoke at Cushla’s funeral, said she had been handpicked to go to Europe by inquiry lead Allan Galbraith because she was simply the best person for the job.
The outcome was the result of “brilliant detective work, tact and patience”.
Those were qualities she also brought to bear on another high-profile case, that of the serial Auckland rapist dubbed the Parnell Panther, on which she and Dave worked together in 1983.
“Cushla was highly sought-after by CIB leaders for such operations because she was the best,” Dave recalled.
She was also a mentor for CIB staff, partly, Dave said, because of her distinctive interviewing style, which involved “a lot of talking” and her ability to get suspects to “cough”. “The way she interviewed victims and witnesses stayed with me for the rest of my career.”
He recalled two detectives interviewing a “flasher”. “Try as they might, they couldn’t get him to cough. Cushla went in. Ten minutes later she came back and said, ‘All done’. The suspect was asked why he confessed to Cushla and not to the other two. ‘To shut her up’, came the reply.”
Cushla’s attitude, recorded in TV series NZ Detectives, was “you do what you have to do, no matter how long it takes”.
She was a “great interviewer”, Dave said, with her skills complemented by a personality full of warmth, compassion and empathy.
Growing up in Thames, Cushla initially joined the Air Force for three years before signing up for Police in 1973. She was posted to Tauranga, where she was the only policewoman, then moved to Wellington, where, in 1978, she was accepted for detective training and, for a time, was the only woman in the CIB.
She served for 20 years, leaving to care for her family. She had postponed having children while establishing her career and did want to return to work after maternity leave but found that a fulltime commitment was too difficult with her growing family that eventually included three children. Along with another female detective, she had put forward an unsuccessful proposal for a job share.
In 2016, she told the NZ Herald: “I had children and couldn't balance both. I left the CIB after my first child because, with inquiry work, you can't always clock out at the assigned time, so I switched to shift work in the control room taking 111 calls. After my second child, I applied to job-share with a friend, but flexible employment wasn’t an option then. You worked fulltime or not at all. Some women did work fulltime with children but for me that wasn't going to work.”
Leaving the service was a difficult decision for the talented detective, and a loss for Police.
Dave said Cushla had always found her work fascinating with its mix of problemsolving, excitement, danger, joy and grief. And “always done with appropriate humour and her trademark smile”.
She told the NZ Herald how much she had enjoyed the “buzz and an adrenaline rush”.
“Of course, there’s tragedy and it’s challenging, but challenge is a good thing. You learn about yourself and sometimes you can quietly pat yourself on the back and feel satisfied there’s been a good outcome,” she said.
Cushla was farewelled in Auckland on February 23 at a service attended by 350 people, including family, friends and former Police colleagues.
