By MARTIN JOHNSTON
Lawyers predict almost certain failure for bad-blood claimants' criminal charges against former Health Ministers Helen Clark and Simon Upton.
In a campaign born of frustration, the Haemophilia Foundation urged claimants to go to police stations and lay charges of criminal nuisance under the Crimes Act against the Prime Minister and the National MP.
The foundation estimated that more than 60 complaints had been filed in the national campaign.
A spokesman for the police national prosecutions manager, Assistant Commissioner Neville Trendle, said yesterday that a sample of the complaints would be assessed to see whether an investigation was warranted.
About 250 people are seeking compensation from the Government for being infected with hepatitis C before comprehensive blood-supply screening began in 1992.
The foundation alleges the former ministers ignored advice and did not act early enough to stop people being infected.
An Auckland University law lecturer, Associate Professor Warren Brookbanks, could not recall any New Zealand ministers or former ministers being tried on criminal charges over how they handled their duties.
A French minister had been found guilty over the supply of blood that he knew to be contaminated.
But it was unlikely that New Zealand police would want to prosecute unless they found a clear case of abuse by the former Health Ministers.
Professor Brookbanks said it would be difficult in court to prove cause and intention, and to "sheet home" the personal responsibility of the ministers.
"For public policy reasons it would be very undesirable if every time consumers were offended by what they perceived to be the insufficiency of a Government department, they then prosecuted the minister in charge. It would make it very difficult for people to want to come forward [for office]."
Helen Clark and Mr Upton declined to comment on the charges.
Auckland lawyer Gary Gotlieb said it would be difficult in a case against the ministers to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the test in criminal cases.
Past attempts to bring such cases had been dismissed for abuse of process, he said.
Foundation vice-president Mike Mapperson said it had taken the action because of frustration with the Government's decision to cease compensation negotiations.
"With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps we should have done this first of all."
Almost all haemophiliacs who had been infected with contaminated blood had been excluded from the Government's compensation offer because of the "arbitrary" cut-off date of February 1990, he said.
The Government has offered $40,000 compensation to 70 people but some have rejected it as too little.
About 150 people have filed court claims suing the Government and a further 100 claims are being prepared.
Herald Online Health
Blood claimants up against it
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