Judge: Breach was court's fault

Justice Helen Winkelmann. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

The Chief High Court Judge, Justice Helen Winkelmann, says the court failed to note suppression rules on a judgement which led to the publication of the names of two sexual abuse victims on the Ministry of Justice website.

Justice Winkelmann, in a statement this evening following her inquiries, said it was an error and the sentencing judge very much regretted it had happened.

However, the ministry had a responsibility to ensure that all details required to be suppressed by statute or by court order were removed from published judgments and Justice Winkelmann said she would review how judgements were noted and marked for distribution, so the same mistake would not happen again.

"Statutory suppression provisions in particular apply to everyone and do not depend on the direction of a judge. Publication of the decision is not at the direction of the judge."

Two brothers were named on the website when their abuser's sentencing notes were posted online on Thursday. The document was removed the following day, when the error was discovered.

The publishing of the names breached the automatic suppression rules surrounding sexual abuse victims.

Justice Minister Simon Power spoke with ministry officials this morning and said he had decided to appoint an independent reviewer to look at the ministry's processes.

The person conducting the review was likely to be named within the next two days.

Mr Power said it appeared the ministry was following instructions from the judiciary when it published the names, and that no suppression orders had been marked on the document.

The ministry had contacted one of the men to apologise, but was still trying to contact the second man.

In a statement yesterday, the ministry said it was working with the judiciary to review how the error had occurred.

"The ministry takes very seriously its responsibility in publishing judicial decisions on behalf of the courts. It very much regrets that this error has occurred."

The abuse happened 20 years ago and involved the offender, aged under 17 and a sexual abuse victim himself, regularly abusing the boys near a rural swimming hole.

He was this month sentenced to four years' jail on eight counts of sexual violation of a boy under 12 and five counts of indecent assault or inducing an indecent act.

- NZPA