Reid speaks out on family feud

WARWICK REID spoke out for the first time about the blood feud with his brother, Michael, who has recently entered a psychiatric ward.

Reid who once vowed Michael would 'pay the price' for allegedly tipping off the ICAC about his corruption in 1989, said he now wanted to bury the hatchet.

'My relationship with my brother remains strained, although I have no hostile intentions towards him,' he said in the note he passed to the South China Morning Post during the flight home early yesterday.

'And I will not cling to past events in a desire for revenge,' he said.

Reid enjoyed an on board champagne tipple to celebrate his release - his first drink since being re-captured from the Philippines and placed in custody in March, 1990 - and said he was happy to answer any questions put to him.

He also rebuked Governor Chris Patten for refusing to cut 36 months from his original sentence of eight years for having assets he could not explain.

'The fact that the governor did not follow the Chief Justice's recommendation that I be accorded on a three-year reduction on sentence was unjust,' he said.

But even in hindsight he said he did not believe he would have been better off pleading not guilty and forcing the ICAC to prove their case against him.

'No, because the ICAC had an overwhelming case on the Section 10 charge [under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance].' With escort, former police officer Peter Kedward, at his side, Reid read, drank and watched movies on the Cathy Pacific flight.

Fellow passengers - most of them aware of his identity and the elaborate operation hours earlier to whisk him from prison to the airport under ICAC armed guard in a Blackhawk helicopter - looked on curiously.

In a second hand-written dispatch from his seat, Reid said: 'My main concern is to avoid the TV reporters and I don't want to be photographed.' After touching down at Auckland, airport police carrying Glock pistols escorted Reid through Customs and Immigration and into a waiting area where his wife's brother, Graham Brake, picked him up.

A reunion followed soon afterwards at Mr Brake's modest flat which Reid's children, Sarah, Jeremy and Cassie, and his wife had decorated with yellow ribbons balloons and a banner saying 'welcome home'.

Reid, who will be struck off the Law Society's roll of barristers and solicitors in the High Court at Auckland in two weeks, said he wanted to be left alone with his family.

'I have been public property for many years and enough is enough.' Mr Brake said last night Reid wept during the reunion.

'They were tears of joy. It will take him time to adjust. He's the only one who knows if there's a threat to him,' said Mr Brake.