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seen atop a Segway kicking up a trail of dust in his wake, zigzagging down the drive to the main gate.

Tempero’s message was short and to the point. The former freezing worker from Dunedin is foreign to subtleties. No, said Tempero, you can’t come in. There is no statement, he said, and there is no comment. Then he let loose one tiny fact which made a world of difference. It was not for reporting, he said. "They said the shotgun was next to him. That’s bullshit. It was nowhere near him. It was right across the other side of the room."

The issue of the shotguns was one which would cause Tempero a great deal of anxiety in the months which followed. The guns were bought at his insistence — he later claimed in court it was for sporting purposes while also having possible self-defence qualities. Dotcom was much more definite in his evidence. He said the shotguns were for self-defence which was why he had instructed the guns to be loaded with rubber bullets.

Tempero was charged with possession of the guns, which he would legally have been allowed to possess if he had removed the pistol-grip stocks for the shoulder stocks, a simple process requiring a screwdriver and a handful of minutes. The requisite parts were even in the gun safe with the shotguns. But he hadn’t. The guns, even as the truth began to emerge, were seen by many as the proof of criminality. Tempero agonised over their existence, and what he saw as a betrayal given the police advice he had sought before purchasing them, legally, through an approved agent who sought out a firearms dealer.

But he was clear, for all it bothered him that he now faced charges over the shotguns. "They were nowhere near him," he said again. And if that wasn’t true, what else was manufactured? It was the tiniest hint of polish on the truth and hinted at what might lie beneath.

More would reveal itself in the month or so the four accused remained in jail, a picture of the events leading up to the raid and the raid itself was becoming clearer.

The police had said: "It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door." Yet this was exactly what a police officer had done the day before.

The community constable from the nearby beachside Orewa village, Jason Homan, had taken up an earlier invitation from Dotcom to talk security. The officer was an experienced former dog handler, a branch of police whose officers are well used to acting independently in situations requiring extreme courage and good judgment. The invitation followed local teenagers flitting from tree to tree across the property, around the gardens and through the hedge maze on night-time excursions. Tempero had become frustrated and, along with new security staff member Regan Stewart, had reached out to

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