Pat Booth passes away at 87

Crusading newspaperman Pat Booth has passed away.

Booth, one of the country's most respected investigative reporters, died today, aged, 87, at a rest home in west Auckland.

Booth spent nearly 40 years at the now defunct Auckland Star, becoming editor, and is most renowned for his tireless work on the Arthur Allan Thomas miscarriage of justice case and the Mr Asia Crime syndicate.

The stories were scandalous and horrifying and were reported by Booth and a team of his reporters in a depth rarely achieved.

As part of the campaign for a pardon for Thomas, Booth wrote a book, Trial by Ambush.

This was followed by another campaigning book, Beyond Reasonable Doubt by British investigative author David Yallop.

Booth's eight-year crusade resulted in Arthur Allan Thomas, wrongly jailed for double murder, receiving a full royal pardon.

Thomas received a pardon, and a Royal Commission report stated that detectives had used ammunition and a rifle taken from Thomas' farm to fabricate false evidence against him.

A 2014 police review of the case acknowledged police misconduct was probably the explanation for the key evidence against Thomas (a spent cartridge case).

He also helped reveal an international drug ring during the notorious Mr Asia investigations. He wrote a book on the international drug smuggling ring, THE MR ASIA FILE: The Life and Death of Marty Johnstone

Booth kept his hand in, writing "Off Pat", a column for the Eastern Courier until hanging up his pen three years ago at the age of 85.

Booth met Valerie Davies while working at the Auckland Star. In 2014, Davies told The Australian Women's Weekly that at the time a romance in the newsroom was frowned upon, and she transferred to the Weekly in 1973 as a writer.

He also wrote an authorised biography of Sir Edmund Hillary, Edmund Hillary: The Life of a Legend.

NZ Herald.