David Brian Dougherty (29 March 1967 – 20 April 2017) was a New Zealander who was wrongfully convicted in 1993 on charges of abduction and the rape of an 11-year-old girl.
[3] Five months later, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) detected another man's semen on the young girl's underclothes.
Minister of Justice Doug Graham initially turned down Dougherty's bid for compensation claiming that he had not proven his innocence.
[12] Dougherty's case became the subject of the 2008 New Zealand telemovie Until Proven Innocent which documents the miscarriage of justice that led to his imprisonment.
[13] The film described the campaign to overturn his conviction and the roles played by journalist Donna Chisholm, Dougherty's lawyer Murray Gibson, and Arie Geursen a scientist who all advocated on his behalf.
From prison, Nicholas Reekie made a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) that the film was innacurate and breached his privacy.
The Court dismissed his appeal as "frivalous and vexatious", adding that "Mr Reekie's submissions display a remarkable lack of comprehension of the enormity of his crimes.
Even after he was released, he became a target of overzealous individuals, who posted pamphlets wherever they could in a new area he moved to, identifying him as a child rapist.