Christopher King
Law-abiding citizens are probably going to find themselves tangled up in even more red tape thanks to people like Phillip Smith, Kris Willoughby and Christopher King.
Because these people have lied, hurt and manipulated people, and beaten the systems put in place to prevent the likes of them doing exactly what they have done, there will be inquiries, finger pointing and ultimately changes that will no doubt make life for us just that little bit more frustrating. That's fine if it would stop people like this but it won't.
There will always be people in this world who beat the system no matter what we do to prevent it. In just one week, murderer Phillip Smith and drug criminal Kris Willoughby managed to flee the country.
Every week television viewers can watch Customs officers interrogating people and going through their luggage on Border Control.
They stop all sorts of things and people coming into our country. They even stopped a nasty orange sitting in the bottom of my bag last year. Well, actually it wasn't the Customs officers - it was a cute little dog that starting sniffing my bag. I was asked if I had any food in my bag. No, I said. A Customs officer asked me to open my bag and lo and behold, at the bottom of my large handbag was an orange I had simply forgotten was there. That orange cost me $400, an expensive lesson. Every time I think about border control I remember that bloody orange. Anyway, I digress. The point I'm making is that Customs is tough already. However, no matter how many questions Customs officers ask and how many bags they search, people and banned goods are going to slip through the net because there are some really good liars out there.
Take former St John ambulance officer Christopher King, who was last week found guilty of eight sex charges. By all accounts this predator (I'm not going to do all the other good men in the world the disservice of calling him a man) has lied a hell of a lot.
Some people are so good at lying. I'm sure there are not many people out there who have never told a lie, whether it be to save someone's feelings or keep themselves out of a bit of trouble, but people like King are what I would call habitual liars.
I've met one or two habitual liars. Most of them are harmless - they lie to make themselves feel better or to make out they live very exciting lives when in fact they don't. They are most probably lonely. But King seems to be an expert. He duped lots of people and because of him all the other hard-working, honest St John ambulance officers in our communities will no doubt get his actions thrown in their faces by some of the people they are trying to help.
I wrote last week about how lucky Hawke's Bay is to have such great volunteers in the fire service, St John and other rescue operations - and we are. Let's not forget that King is an anomaly. I hope the powers that be heading any inquiries into these events don't make decisions that make life harder for the good people.
-Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.