Amanda Banks gets a judicial apology

The Herald reports:

A High Court judge has made a public apology to John Banks’ wife after questioning her credibility as a witness.

The ex-politician was back in court today seeking $190,000 costs over the trial that saw his wrongful conviction for a false electoral return.

That conviction was essentially based on Justice Edwin Wylie preferring Kim Dotcom and Mona Dotcom’s evidence over that of Amanda Banks but the Court of Appeal overturned that after Mrs Banks tracked down witnesses to a lunch at which Mr Dotcom had wrongly claimed the donations were discussed.

After hearing submissions from both parties today, Justice Edwin Wylie called Banks into the body of the court from the public gallery.

“It’s important I say this in public with the benefit of what I now know,” he said.

Justice Wylie acknowledged the assessment he made about Mrs Banks was “an error” and asked the former MP to pass on his apologies to his wife.

I’m pretty sure the apology to Amanda will be more important to John Banks than the amount of costs he wins back.