Murder victims' families fight the system

Faye and Ron Bishop believe their victim-impact statement will be censored. Photo / David Fairey

The parents of a murdered man say they are feeling betrayed by the justice system as they prepare to confront their son's killers.

Ron and Faye Bishop will this week return to the High Court at New Plymouth to read a formal victim-impact statement to the men convicted of murdering their son, Dean Browne, 38.

The Bishops have spoken of their frustration over preparing the statement and have won the support of other parents of murder victims who say the statements are pointless because they get censored by the killers and the system.

Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, 23, and Karl Nuku, 19, were found guilty last month of killing Browne. The two were part of a group calling themselves the Killer Clown Fiends, a name apparently inspired by the 1970s American mass-murderer John Wayne Gacy.

The Bishops felt excluded from challenging claims made about their son during the trial.

Now they fear they will again be marginalised by the system, after submitting their statement to the prosecuting lawyers in preparation for the Friday sentencing.

"You just know it's going to be censored," said Faye, speaking on the couple's Warkworth farm.

They are also bracing for a sentence they believe will be too lenient. Having read recent cases, they might hope for 17 years, which still means Nuku will be younger than the man he killed when he gets out of jail.

Ron said: "They should get at least 25 years, 30 years. But they won't. And they'll do it in a five-star resort."

But he does not expect to be allowed to speak so candidly at their sentencing.

The Bishops have gone through victim-impact statements from parents of other murder victims, including Gil Elliott's statement about the murder of his daughter, Sophie. Chunks of the prepared statement were removed before the sentencing of murderer Clayton Weatherston.

Faye said: "What's the point? You can't say what you feel. It is ridiculous - particularly after what we've heard in court."

Ron said it was frustrating to prepare the statement knowing his words were going to be altered.

"But if you don't have your say, then you're forever wondering if it could have made a difference."

Victim Support had advised the couple against expressing their personal feelings towards the men convicted of their son's murder.

Gil Elliott was so upset at how his statement to the court was altered that he released the original publicly. It has just been reprinted online on a new website called the Justice Hot Tub.

"I'm sorry for Ron and Faye but I don't believe anything you say has any effect on anyone in court," Elliott told the Herald on Sunday. "Victim-impact statements are just a sop. They are there just to make you think you are involved.

"What is wrong with calling [the offender] a bastard? You should be able to call them anything you like - they have taken your child. Why shouldn't you be able to say what you think as long as it is true?"

Elliott said he and other victims' families had complained to Justice Minister Simon Power.

Among them was David White, whose daughter Helen was murdered by her husband Greg Meads. White said he drew on a lifetime of work as a writer to find a way to express himself - and still managed to fall foul of the rules.

White's original draft referred to Meads as "murderer".

"That was a joke. I wasn't allowed to call him a murderer. You're not allowed to insult him or hurt his feelings."

He said his wife Pam, Helen's mother, didn't read her statement at all because there had been so many changes. Among the changes was a reference to Helen as "my dear darling daughter" - it was removed.

A spokesman for Power said changes to victims' rights laws were planned and initial work would go before Parliament before the election.

The changes included allowing victims to use more of their own words in the statements.

"He's mindful of concerns around censorship," said the spokesman.