Inquest now likely into death of baby

KATHY WEBB
An inquest is likely to be held into the death of the two-month-old daughter of convicted rapist and murderer Paul Bailey after revelations about her terrible death by Hawke's Bay Today and TV3.
Garth McVicar, spokesperson for the Napier-based Sensible Sentencing Trust, which is fighting to prevent Bailey getting out of jail on parole, said today he was pleased that Dunedin Coroner Jim Conradson had indicated it was likely he would now hold an inquest into the death of baby Linda Rose Bailey in Ettrick in 1989.
"Neat, eh?" Mr McVicar said.
"It should have happened years ago. If it had, Kylie Smith wouldn't be dead today."
He was confident the inquest would go ahead, because "there's a lot of pressure coming from various parts now. This won't go away. The last resort would be a private prosecution, but I don't expect we'll have to resort to that."
Bailey is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 15-year-old Owaka schoolgirl Kylie Smith in 1991 while he was on bail for the rape of another young girl.
Hawke's Bay Today revealed last month that the night his baby daughter died, Bailey turned up the volume on his television to drown out the baby's agonised screams as she burned to death in a cane laundry basket beside a stove.
A blanket covering her was draped across a red-hot element on the stove, acting as a wick to the baby in the basket.
The trust helped four young people who were teenagers visiting the Bailey house that night to make police statements last month.
Those statements were then handed to police, Mr Conradson, and police headquarters.
Some of the young people say they saw Bailey pick up badly-burned Linda, drop her on the floor several times, then plunge her into a bath of cold water already run, and hold her under for extended periods. She died in hospital later that night.
Despite the circumstances of the baby's death, an inquest was never held.
One of the witnesses, Chris Dean, was not interviewed by police until 1991, and another, Ronald Stratford, was not interviewed until four or five years ago.
Tania Dryden, who was 14 at the time, cannot recall what she told police but says it was probably very little.
The youngest of the witnesses, a 12-year-old at the time, says she was in such shock she cannot remember whether police ever interviewed her. Only months after the baby's death, she was repeatedly raped by Bailey.
She fought for 14 years to get police to prosecute him, but it wasn't until the Solicitor General intervened that Bailey was charged with two rapes, which he admitted.
He was sentenced in July this year to three years in jail on each charge, to be served concurrently.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust plans to appeal, seeking longer sentences to be served cumulatively.
Mr Conradson said yesterday he was waiting to hear the results of a police investigation into Linda's death before deciding whether to take the matter further.
It all depended on whether police planned to prosecute Bailey over any alleged involvement in the death.
The results of the investigation have been forwarded to a senior southern police chief who has yet to decide what, if any action, to take.
"I can't decide anything in advance but I do, under the new legislation, need to take into account the rumours and suspicion surrounding this case," Mr Conradson said.