Diane Hunt, mother of killed police officer Matthew Hunt, presents the parole and sentencing reform for murder of police officers petition on the steps of Parliament. Video / Amelia Wade
The Parole Board has apologised to a child sex abuse victim after failing three times to notify her about her rapist stepfather’s upcoming hearings.
The man was later convicted of 14 charges, including six of rape. He was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison with a minimum non-parole period of eight years.
He became eligible for parole in January last year.
As a registered victim, Emma should have been notified about his hearing three months in advance, allowing her time to make a submission to the board.
It emerged her notification letter was delivered to an old address.
“Basically, I slipped through the cracks,” she said.
“I got a formal apology from the Parole Board for that, and my contact details were basically tripled to make sure that before the next hearing I would be contacted.”
The third parole hearing was set for July 8.
Again, there was no notification. Emma found out about the hearing from the third-party lawyer.
“I learned that information at 5.30pm on the Monday and I called the Parole Board,” she said.
“I was told that the hearing had happened that day, that the offender was set to be released pending deportation and that it was basically too late and there was nothing I could do.”
“They agreed to hear me that Thursday and take into account whatever I had to say - but it was on the understanding that unless I said something very significant, they weren’t going to change the decision.
“They heard me. They haven’t changed their decision.”
Emma (not her real name) reported her stepfather's sexual abuse when she was an adult. Photo / 123rf
Emma accepted her stepfather had been released but she could not accept the botched notifications.
“It’s a pretty horrible situation… it’s pretty bad,” she said.
“It’s the fact it’s been three different times, three different issues - it’s ridiculous.”
After a second investigation, the board found “human error” to blame and sent another formal apology to Emma.
“Basically, the conclusion was that an electronic copy of my notification letter was created, checked and finalised by a hearing manager,” Emma said.
“The next step in the process is for the hearing manager to draft an email to you, attaching a copy of that letter.
“The step was never completed.
“They then said that there was another check that was supposed to happen to make sure the letter was sent out - but due to another human error that didn’t happen.
“They said they have since implemented additional checks that are also done manually to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future - but it feels like the whole system is just made up of fixes that they’ve come up with after the fact of finding an error.”
Emma was furious that she had been overlooked three times - more so when she learned about other victims who had been through the same thing previously.
“That’s my major concern,” Emma said.
“I’m pretty tough. I can take this sort of thing and I’ll fight back but there are a lot of victims who would just rather not have to go through this whole process of fighting for their rights after dealing with everything they’ve had to deal with.
“And I don’t want other people to have that feeling I had of ‘I’ve lost my opportunity to have my say’.
“It’s a legal right to have your say at a parole hearing. I just need the Parole Board to really, really understand the damage that this sort of thing can do to people.
“I want them to get it right in future. I don’t want this to happen to other people.”
The failures in Emma’s notifications were “the result of human error in some of those steps”.
Young and McLean said work on “a new end-to-end digital solution that would automate many of these steps and provide greater assurance that tasks have been completed” was “well underway”.
“We expect this new system to be launched late this year.
“In the meantime, we have reviewed where we made mistakes in our processes and have made changes intended to prevent any repetition of what happened to this victim.”
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz
