The Corrections Minister says it is "inappropriate" that a convicted rapist became a father by using a doctor to smuggle semen out of Rimutaka Prison.
The partner of pack rapist Peter McNamara, Joanne Percy, had a baby boy in Tauranga Hospital in January. McNamara was allowed out ofthe jail in Upper Hutt - with two prison escorts he had to pay for - to attend the birth.
McNamara is serving seven years for the rape of a 20-year-old in Mt Maunganui in 1989. He was convicted alongside former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum.
The 37-year-old has told officials that his sperm was collected and taken out of the jail by a doctor.
Prisons officials yesterday said there was no law stopping an inmate from fathering a child, but minister Damien O'Connor said last night that it was "inappropriate" and an investigation was under way.
"We are currently investigating the claims made. There are a number of contradictions in the information we have received so far, and we will be looking at it further," said Mr O'Connor.
"It's clearly inappropriate that such claimed behaviour should take place but we are not privy to medical notes held by a doctor. If there are any gaps in the current procedures we will make changes," the minister said.
Rimutaka Prison manager Chris Smith said that, because of patient confidentiality, officials there were not consulted or told about the semen being taken.
The doctor was contracted to the prison and it is understood the investigation will look at whether a code of conduct had been breached or the law broken when the semen was taken out of the prison.
Prisons operations assistant general manager Bryan McMurray said it was not illegal for prisoners to father a child from behind bars.
Fertility Associates director Richard Fisher said sperm could be collected in any sort of container and taken to the woman, who could inseminate herself.
As long as the insemination was done within an hour and a half of the sperm being collected, and the woman was ovulating, the chances of a success were about 20 per cent, Dr Fisher said.
National Party justice spokesman Simon Power said people who were sent to prison were supposed to be deprived of some liberties.
"If this set of circumstances is correct then it's difficult to see how this individual prisoner was deprived of those liberties."
