KEY POINTS:
George Baker's life sentence with an 18-year, non-parole period is appropriate for his horrendous crime, the family of slain teenager Liam Ashley says.
In a statement released after Baker was jailed in the High Court in Auckland today the Ashley family said while Baker had been held accountable for his crimes, as a family they had to accept accountability for their decision about their son.
That decision meant the family entrusted Liam into the New Zealand justice system "in an effort to stem his escalating bad behaviour in the public environment. We can tell you that this has been very taxing on our family, especially considering Liam's ultimate fate."
However, the Ashleys also said no one in the justice system had faced accountability for the "serious breaches within the justice system that provided the unbelievable opportunity for George Baker to ultimately murder Liam.
"Yes, Liam was a youth and there were policies and procedures that should have been in place to ensure that as a youth Liam was kept separate from other adult offenders. But the facts are that he was not and the circumstances surrounding his non-separation are totally unacceptable to us.
"But it is also important to note that Liam's murderer, was a known violent criminal within the justice system. He was a documented psychopath, who would have more than likely harmed others in the future and yet unbelievably the system failed to keep him separated.
"We now have no doubt he would have killed someone on that fatal day, it was just unfortunate for our family that due to a long list of unacceptable failures in the system, that he happened to be given that opportunity with Liam."
The family said Chubb, the company responsible for security in the courts and the prison vans, said it was not accountable.
"We have the CEO of the Department of Corrections saying they are not accountable, we have the Minister of Corrections saying he is not ultimately accountable and we now we even have the Prime Minister of our government saying that no one is specifically accountable.
"They all blame 'the system' but surely the government has to accept the fact that they are ultimately accountable for the system.
"George Baker and our family are now paying the ultimate price for our actions, we now respectfully ask the prime minister who else should," the statement said.
- NZPA
