Double killer sent home to freedom

By PATRICK GOWER

A double-killer whom Australian police once called "the greatest argument for the death penalty there ever was" is walking free in New Zealand, with no supervision or rehabilitation requirements.

The Weekend Herald has learned that Craig Andrew McConnell was deported here three weeks ago after spending 18 years of a life sentence in Australian prisons for two separate murders and other violent offences.

Although Interpol was aware of the 38-year-old's arrival, under New Zealand law he is not subject to any police checks or parole conditions.

In June 1984, a 20-year-old McConnell slit the throat of a Gold Coast sex shop owner who had been tied up and gagged, thrown down some stairs and stabbed.

Two months later he used a steak knife to stab and slit the throat of New Zealand-born high-class prostitute, Lovena Cunningham, despite having already choked her during a planned robbery. He poured bleach over the 45-year-old's mouth and genitals to cover his tracks.

McConnell is the latest New Zealander convicted of a serious crime overseas to be dumped back here since Justice Minister Phil Goff called for an inquiry two years ago to see if a law change was needed to make such people subject to parole conditions.

After being told of McConnell's arrival by the Weekend Herald, Mr Goff said he remained "deeply uneasy".

"We have no control over preventing [McConnell] from coming back here but I would like to be able to keep him and anybody else under the same parole conditions [that would apply] had they committed the crime here."

Criminals released from life sentences in New Zealand can be recalled to prison if there is a threat that they will reoffend.

Mr Goff said officials had spent the past six months investigating setting up mutual parole agreements but their introduction would be difficult because it would require new legislation from both countries involved. He remained committed to the idea and would raise it with his Australian counterparts this year.

Ms Cunningham's daughter, Deborah - who discovered her body in 1984 - is now living in New Zealand.

"I am a living victim of this crime, living with the memory that he slit her throat to the depth of her spine. But they will not even tell me what island this guy is living in."

Her family do not want their location identified in case McConnell comes looking for them.

Deborah Cunningham said Mr Goff's proposal should be set up as soon as possible so other serious criminals did not walk into New Zealand "as free as a bird".

In 1984, investigating officer Detective Sergeant Pat Glancy said McConnell was "the greatest argument for the death penalty there ever was".

"He's a cold calculating killer, there's no disputing that."

No information has been released on McConnell's rehabilitation, except that he is classified as a low-security prisoner and has been attending a violence prevention programme and meetings of a indeterminate sentence prisoners' association.

A guard at the Borallon Correctional Centre where McConnell spent the past few years told the Weekend Herald he was "fit and healthy", when he left. Asked if he was rehabilitated, the guard replied: "It is not for me to say."

Mr Goff made said police had "done everything within their powers" since McConnell arrived. They had met him, profiled him and passed the information to the police station in the area where he was living with family.

He said that 30 to 50 New Zealanders were deported home each year, mainly from Australia. Serious offenders like McConnell were "very, very rare".

Mr Goff first called for the inquiry after becoming concerned there were gaps in the system in December 2000 when Dwayne Hedges, convicted of murdering his 4-year-old cousin in Australia, was deported here after serving five years of a 7 1/2-year sentence.

Since then at least two other serious criminals have been deported here, both without police checks or parole requirements. Several other serious criminal have also slipped past immigration.

* patrick_gower@nzherald.co.nz

Criminals through our doors

Serious criminals who have walked into New Zealand in the past two years:

* February 2003. Double-murderer Craig Andrew McConnell is deported to New Zealand after serving 18 years in Australian jails.

* September 2002. Indian sex offender Balwinder Singh is sent packing for the second time after he beat immigration controls by changing his name. He spent several years in Pukekohe.

* July 2002. Scottish triple-killer Archie "Mad Dog" McCafferty spends two weeks living in the Bay of Plenty before being arrested and sent back to Britain for failing to declare his criminal convictions when entering the country.

* May 2002. Criminally insane killer Claude John Gabriel is sent back to Australia after escaping from psychiatric care to hide in Italy and then New Zealand. His three-week stay after capture cost taxpayers nearly $29,000.

* February 2002. Bradley Nelson Page, a necrophiliac jailed for the gruesome killing of his girlfriend in the United States in 1984, is arrested for indecently exposing himself in Te Awamutu. New Zealand police admit they did not know he was in the country until his arrest.

* January 2002. Convicted killer Ropati Nauer slips in from Samoa before he could be sentenced for the manslaughter of a girl who jumped from his car after he abducted her. New Zealand police believe he is still in the country.

* January 2002. Blenheim-born convicted rapist Rodney James McCormick is deported from Australia after serving 12 years for drugging and raping a young woman. Now 57, he moved to Australia 36 years ago and has no friends or relatives here.

* October 2001. Former Whangarei woman Cheryl Sirelli Pothan Brewer is deported to New Zealand instead of serving a 15-year jail sentence in the United States for child neglect and arson after the death of her 17-year-old son. Now 39, she was last believed to be living a transient life between Auckland and the Waikato.

* December 2000. Dwayne Hedges, a Timaru-born man convicted of murdering his 4-year-old cousin in Australia, is deported here after serving five years of a 7 1/2 -year sentence. Now 22, Hedges was last believed to be living in Christchurch.

* Email patrick_gower@nzherald.co.nz