Judge orders discharge without conviction for woman who escaped from MIQ - twice

Auckland's Grand Millenium MIQ facility. Photo / File

A woman who was charged with failing to comply with a Covid-19 order after she attempted to escape from a central Auckland MIQ facility two nights in a row has been granted a discharge without conviction.

The 32-year-old appeared in Auckland District Court via audio-video feed today before Judge Greg Davis, who also granted her permanent name suppression.

She was charged with three Covid violations in October 2020, when New Zealanders returning home from overseas were still required to stay at a managed isolation facility for two weeks.

The woman had twice tested negative for the virus when she slipped out of the Grand Millenium Hotel via a fire escape around 1am on October 8.

Authorities would later scour CCTV footage showing her walking in and around the inner city before returning to the hotel two hours later, Air Commodore Darryn Webb, who was then head of MIQ, said at the time.

She wasn’t caught until around 1am the following night when she attempted to do the same thing again.

“A permanent security presence has been established outside her room to ensure she remains at the facility,” Webb said at the time.

“Normally all fire exits that are not able to be monitored by CCTV or that are not alarmed are monitored by security guards stationed near them. Unfortunately, a local decision was taken which meant that those guards were elsewhere on that evening.”

At the time, roughly seven months into the pandemic, such escapes had been described as rare - only 14 people had been accused of such attempts among 60,000 who had stayed in MIQ facilities.

“While I’m confident that we have strong security measures in place, these hotels are not prisons ...” Webb said.

“There are rules in place for every single returnee and we expect people to follow these during their 14-day stay in managed isolation. This is so they can return to the community safely, while ensuring the safety of all New Zealanders.”

For the past two years, the woman’s case has remained mostly in Auckland’s mentally impaired person’s court. During a hearing in June, another judge found her not guilty by reason of insanity of other, unrelated charges.

The insanity, however, was found to have been temporary and didn’t cover the times of the MIQ escapes.

Judge Davis mentioned the mental health issues today while granting the discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression, pointing out that she has recovered and now holds a “flash” job.

The woman was also ordered to pay a $500 emotional harm reparation to a backpacker lodge worker she is accused of having lunged at and scratched after she was asked to check out in January 2021, as well as a $250 payment to the hostel for having returned later that day and damaging the business’ door.

She was also discharged without conviction on those charges.