A High Court judge has criticised police, blaming an attack on an elderly Howick widow by a violent P-fuelled man on a "chronic and unacceptable" blunder at Henderson police station.
Brett Stuart Wellm, 44, was sentenced to at least 17 years of preventative detention in the High Court
at Auckland yesterday.
He previously admitted what Justice Rhys Harrison described as a "barbaric" attack on 83-year-old Howick woman Francis Gavin.
Wellm tricked his way into Mrs Gavin's home with a bible before binding her hands and legs and attacking her with a pair of hedgeclippers and a spade in November last year.
He stole jewellery and alcohol from her home and left her for dead before setting her home on fire.
Justice Harrison said yesterday the attack would never have happened if police had a warning on their system noting that Wellm was wanted.
Wellm had absconded from his home detention from an earlier offence and had been recalled to prison by the Parole Board - a fact that Community Probation and Psychological Services says it advised Waitakere police of by fax.
But, just a month before the attack, a non-sworn police staff member found no record of the warrant for Wellm's arrest and turned him away when he tried surrendering himself in at Henderson station.
"There was no warrant in existence," Justice Harrison said. "You were allowed - or in fact, I assume, invited - to leave the police station.
"[However], that can not explain why the non-sworn officer sent you away.
"At the very least, you should have been detained or referred to a sworn police officer.
"These crimes would never have occurred but for those chronic and unacceptable defaults.
"It will be for the authorities separately to consider the appropriate steps.
"I can only hope that they implement measures to ensure that an error of this magnitude is never repeated."
Justice Harrison said Wellm had a "formidable list" of violent and premeditated offending.
"You display all the traits of a psychopathic offender who will continue to display crimes of serious violence as long as you are able," Justice Harrison said.
