Outspoken members of a wealthy South Auckland community are trying to shut down a mental health facility that has sparked dozens of complaints since it was established several years ago. After a patient left and invaded a woman’s home at 1am, a still-unresolved legal case has only compounded anxieties. The centre’s boss is defiant and says his patients have nowhere else to go and are victims of a broken system. Tom Dillane reports on the dispute.
He’d just learned his brother was dead and had to escape, even if there was nowhere to escape to.
Outside was a lush, semi-rural expanse of lifestyle blocks in Auckland’s south where properties sell for up to $12 million.
On a long road that rose and fell around blind corners was Pukekohe East School, a florist, a few bed and breakfasts, and a Presbyterian church.
Two sets of six-foot gates were not going to contain the man. They’d been breached many times before.
This was a rehabilitation centre that catered to “a small number of very high and complex needs clients” with mental illness and traumatic brain injuries.
“We do not lock anyone up. If a patient requests to leave, then we open the gate for them,” the centre’s boss, managing director of the Goodwood Park Healthcare Group Andrew Beattie said.
“If we have any concerns, a staff member will follow behind in a car and we contact the police, again a rare occurrence.”
But the distressed man didn’t ask for permission. He liked to roam and could cover wide distances.
It was a clear morning but he shrouded himself in his hoodie anyway.
Heading southwest, the first subdivision he hit was on the eastern edge of Pukekohe township – 6km southwest of Ramarama.
From this point, the accounts from locals and Goodwood Park vary considerably.
What is not in dispute is that 1am on June 12, 2023, Kyle Hepi entered Pukekohe resident Valerie’s home on Anselmi Ridge Rd.
“I remember lying there and thinking, ‘oh my son, who is 13, must have gotten up to go to the toilet’,” said Valerie, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
“I went into the bathroom and I noticed there was a glow coming from the lounge room. I just thought he got up to get a drink of water and left the lounge room lights on. I’m literally thinking ‘the little s***’.”
It was only when Valerie turned off the light to return to bed that she saw her car headlights on.
“My immediate thought went to, ‘oh my God, my son is trying to drive out of the driveway’.
“Then I rounded the little alcove from where the front door is and saw this large man sitting in the driver’s seat of my car and I just started screaming at him to just, you know, ‘get the f*** away’.”
It worked. With a fleeting wide-eyed stare, Hepi exited the car and fled down the driveway.
Valerie returned to her house and called the police – now alongside her son who had woken up from the noise.
In the 10 minutes it took them to arrive, Valerie had a disturbing mental image of Hepi’s footsteps through her house. He must have entered from a back door right next to her bedroom – which she had heard closing.
“I was absolutely panicking thinking, ‘oh my God, this man can come back’,” she said.
Officers arrived quickly and found Valerie’s keys at the end of her driveway. Police dogs tracked Hepi within 45 minutes and apprehended him less than one kilometre from Valerie’s home, on the same subdivision.
A year later, the burglary is still before the courts, leaving Valerie in a daily state of “unrelenting fear”.
Her traumatic encounter has invigorated a community effort to get their local mental health facility, housing about 30 residents – shut down.
Under the radar
Andrew Beattie has worked for the broader Goodwood organisation since its beginnings in 1988 when large psychiatric hospitals were closed across New Zealand.
Beattie, now the managing director of Goodwood Park Healthcare Group, said the closure of Carrington Hospital in Point Chevalier, in particular, meant “many of the long-term residents were kicked out and left sleeping under bridges or in poor quality options like boarding houses, with little follow up”.
The organisation began helping patients with long-term mental health needs at Goodwood Park Lodge, an 11-acre (4.4ha) site in Kumeu, but it gradually expanded into satellite houses providing services across the region over the years.
In 1994, Goodwood Park Healthcare Group was approached by the Otara Spinal Unit to take a mental health patient with a traumatic brain injury. Beattie lauds it as the beginning of a specialised service with a “very positive story”.
He says they have seen one suicide in 36 years of nursing countless patients on the brink.
Goodwood set up the gated Ramarama centre on Runciman Rd in 2019 but appears to have flown under the radar of many of the people now opposing it. The facility is housed on three separate blocks on Runciman Rd that were gradually bought by the same company – of which Beattie is a shareholder – in 2016, 2019 and 2021. Beattie claims it housed patients for more than two years without any fuss from locals.
That changed, Beattie says, when Department of Corrections approached Goodwood in 2021 to take 10 patients in a separate specialised service for high-risk parolees – potentially including child sex offenders.
The organisation purchased a 10-acre property for the new centre approximately 15 kilometres from the existing Ramarama facility, across the other side of the motorway.
But opposition to the proposed facility on Ararimu Rd – between two schools – was swift.
Meetings with school officials provided little reassurance to concerned residents.
Ramarama School Board of Trustees chairman Aaron Farr claimed the school had received scant information about the plan other than what was on social media.
“With so many properties available, why choose one between two schools?” he said.
When Auckland Council declined consent for the centre in October 2022, amid widespread community opposition, Goodwood and Corrections abandoned their plans.
A Corrections spokesperson would not elaborate on the decision to abandon the facility but said: “After careful consideration, taking into account a range of factors, we decided not to pursue any further RMA process for the property. Goodwood Park Healthcare Group’s Ramarama Gated facility is not related to this proposal ... Corrections has no involvement in the operation of the Ramarama gated facility.”
This, Beattie says, was when issues with the broader community began – and he is scathing about the locals who objected to the Corrections facility.
“We had no issues with the local community until we were approached by Corrections to set up a specialised service in a rural setting ... from our perspective, we have little interest in fighting bigots and have elected to not further pursue a resource consent for this activity or any other health and rehabilitation purpose, but to sell the property in question.”
Bail breach and a community on high alert – ‘I knew it was him’
When Hepi invaded Valerie’s home a year later, many locals unhappy about the Ramarama facility felt vindicated.
His bail breaches, first on March 2 this year, only added fuel to the fire.
The staff at Goodwood Park claim they were in “close attendance” and Hepi was quickly stopped by police near the same Pukekohe block Valerie lives.
Some in the community already knew Hepi and a post appeared on a neighbourhood Facebook group alerting locals.
“A hooded character was loitering down Bale Way this morning … he wandering the streets now … just saying.”
A neighbour commented: “The police know who this is as they were called on 20th December last year and he was collected. Wearing same clothing too.”
Valerie saw the post but thought nothing of it.
Leaving for a nail appointment a few minutes later, she drove past police surrounding a man on a grass berm near her home.
“As I drove past, the police were there with him and he was just lounging on the grass verge and the police were talking to him and as soon as I saw him, I knew it was him, just remembered that face.”
She turned around, pulled over and anxiously called out to one of the officers.
Was it THAT man, she asked. The police officer confirmed it was Hepi.
“By this point I was just shaking, crying, just losing it. I just was saying he’s not meant to be on my street.”
She claimed he was lounging on a berm, scowling, and wasn’t physically restrained.
Valerie claims Hepi was “absolutely glaring at me” but admits she can’t be sure that he remembered her.
The wheels of justice ...
Hepi has appeared in the Pukekohe District Court now 10 times without issuing a plea on the burglary charge in relation to entering Valerie’s home in June 2023.
For Valerie, the ongoing delays in the courts, and lingering fear of seeing Hepi again in public, is extracting a severe mental toll.
In her victim impact statement to the court, Valerie described Hepi’s actions as having “shattered the peace and security of my home”.
“Every day, I grapple with the aftermath of your violation; the bitter reminders of the havoc you brought into my life; and the peace of mind that I’ve lost.
“Every time I venture out into my own neighbourhood, once a haven of safety and solace, I find myself scanning every corner, every shadow, every side road, consumed by a relentless fear that you’ll show up again.”
She spoke about being prescribed Sertraline for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a “necessary part of my routine”.
Her flatmate moved out – a loss of more than $300 per week – and she no longer feels safe seeking out a stranger to replace them.
He’s been on bail since August 2023 with conditions that he remain at the Goodwood Ramarama facility between the hours of 7pm and 7am and he not have any contact with the victim Valerie or be found within 1 metre of her Anselmi Rd address.
The maximum penalty for the charge is 10 years in prison.
Hepi was given a warning for leaving the Goodwood Ramarama facility on December 20, 2023, and breaching his bail conditions.
His lawyer Megan Jenkins says she has applied for three psychological reports to be done about Hepi – one of which is yet to be delivered – and that this has prolonged the legal process.
In July this year, Hepi breached his bail conditions again. He has an upcoming court date in October.
Hepi hasn’t entered a plea on the burglary charge because he’s been found unfit to stand trial under section 8a of the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003. Both the judge presiding over the case and Hepi’s lawyer have accepted a prima facie case that a burglary occurred – meaning the facts of the case point to the charge being proved. The final report by a psychiatrist will determine what will happens next, Jenkins says.
‘We’re trying to help people’
Goodwood manager Beattie sees Hepi’s home invasion and bail breach very differently.
He knows Hepi personally and says he had suffered a traumatic brain injury and was probably as frightened by Valerie as she was by him.
“What this man did obviously scared this lady. But he wasn’t there to rape. He wasn’t there to do anything. He was there because he was unwell.
“I’m not disputing that it would terrify me, but I think if you know, look … Most people [here] are on major medications.
“These people are victims … We’re trying to help people who have limited resources in the community. You know, if we had an ideal world, we had a perfect place to send them off to. There’s nowhere to pass people on to unless they go into prison.”
Beattie stresses their facilities are not locked and are there to protect the occupants from the outside world as much as the reverse.
“We do know [Hepi’s] brother had just died, and that was a stressor ... that caused him to act out,” Beattie said.
“The second you talk about people with severe mental illness, people jump on the bandwagon and they say they shouldn’t be in the community. And the thing is, he has every right to be in the community.
“Equally if he breaks the law, he has every responsibility to be dealt with by the law and we support that.”
The Goodwood director points out Hepi was “obviously pretty wound up to walk seven kilometres”.
“He was really upset. This is the man who is upset that because he has a mental health problem, he gets that label put on him that suddenly he’s dangerous because he has a mental health condition.”
In May this year, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand released figures showing hospital beds for the mentally unwell were close to 100% full over the three month period tested.
In the past 12 months, the wait time for a bed for patients with severe mental health issues has doubled from an average of 25 days up to 50.
An average wait of 50 days for a bed at Auckland’s forensic psychiatric service, the Mason Clinic means many would-be patients are held in prison before they can be admitted.
Goodwood Park’s Beattie similarly told the Herald his residents are “victims of the system” and his staff are “doing our best to try and help them”.
“If you have any idea of the parlous state of mental health in this country, there are very few facilities and very few options for some of these people,” he said.
“It’s hard not to be emotive, but I am very passionate about this field, and I can be very protective of the people we care for.”
‘My grandkids go to school in the area’
Ramarama resident, property developer and real estate agent Paul Whiteford has engaged in something of a campaign to get the Goodwood facility on Runciman Rd shut down.
Whiteford has developed many of the rural sections in Ramarama and his real estate business posters pepper fences in the area.
Consistent with Beattie’s account, Whiteford only became aware of the Ramarama facility following Goodwood trust’s attempt to establish another nearby facility with Corrections.
“My grandkids go to school in the area. So you’ve got two schools in the area, you’ve got Ramarama School and you’ve got Pukekohe East School – only about three kilometres from this facility [Ramarama],” Whiteford says.
“So in my investigation I find out this is happening … next thing my phone just started ringing with people in the area saying: ‘do you know this is happening’?”
All up, the 72-year-old has sent almost 100 emails to DCS and Auckland Council staff detailing grievances, objections to a possible resource consent, and alleged examples of resident harassment from Goodwood residents.
In Whiteford’s opinion: “This is a countryside living zone and they’ve put in a massive business with ... [Auckland Council are] letting them operate. It’s just totally wrong.”
Whiteford also believes the operators never obtained the required consent to operate and after neighbourhood objections the council issued abatement notices for activities on the site to cease by August 31, 2022. But the centre subsequently applied for a retrospective consent.
Among his grievances, Whiteford cites groups of police cars and ambulances on Runciman Rd one night before Christmas 2023. He understands multiple complaints from a variety of affected residents have flowed into council over the past two years. Auckland Council confirmed there has been 34 emails detailing informal objections on this application during the resource consent process.
The Ramarama resident of 25 years says they have held public meetings which he claims 100 people turned up to including Judith Collins and Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson.
Whiteford says he “of course” has sympathy for the occupants of Goodwood, but that he doesn’t believe the facility itself is justified in its current form.
“These are people from normal families that have had car accidents and things like that, and they’ve got very bad brain trauma. So these people, 100% have to go somewhere. But like everything that the council and government do in New Zealand, they don’t set anything up properly.”
Whiteford claims Goodwood are spending a fortune trying to pull together “disjointed … cruddy old buildings” on the three connected lots they own on Runciman Rd.
“It’s not the right place for these people. I’m a developer, and I could find a property that was suitable for them, and they could build a nice complex.”
In another anecdote, Whiteford says a “mate of mine” was driving down the Great South Rd in Ramarama – three or four kilometres from from this facility – just before Christmas 2023 when he saw “something in the ditch” on the side of the road.
“It was a person lying in the drain on the side of the road in broad daylight, drunk … He thought he was dead … So he took this bloke in his car and drove him and dropped him at that facility because that’s where he lived.”
Alongside Whiteford, another resident has sent extensive complaints to council about what she feels is the degeneration of the rural block where she grew up and still lives with her partner, parents, brother and his dog.
“We once had a great relationship with all our neighbours and we felt comfortable coming and going from each other’s properties, helping each other out with firewood and other neighbourly activities,” the woman complained to Auckland Council in an email.
The woman said, in her view, “since the purchase of the initial property ... this neighbourhood spirit has significantly decreased to the point of us feeling unsafe at nighttime outdoors. Thankfully my brother has a dog and having him with me does help me with a sense of security.”
This lifetime Runciman Rd resident also claims another neighbour was scared out of her own home after what she alleged was continued harassment from the Goodwood Park residents and their “daunting” presence.
“[Residents] knocked on her door at night, painted her name on their water tank, it was very unsettling,” the woman claimed.
This neighbour allegedly sold her property on the road and relocated for several months before the sale to preserve her sense of safety, Whitehead said.
Beattie says after 36 years establishing residential facilities in communities, he’s heard the same kind of complaints from locals many times before.
He singles out one neighbour on Ararimu Rd who “started rallying objections” to the facility following Valerie’s home invasion – and believes the underlying agenda was Goodwood’s perceived harm to property values.
“Interestingly, [the rallying neighbour] gained little support from the majority of the Ramarama community, with several of them not only posting positive comments online, but dropping in to give their support directly to the Ramarama staff,” he claimed.
Despite the complaints or opposition from locals like Whitehead, in April this year an independent planning commissioner granted Goodwood resource consent for the Runciman Rd facility after 18 months in limbo.
The consent conditions specify that no more than 35 residents can be housed and the facility must not accommodate residents whose care is funded by the Department of Corrections. The facilities’ wastewater system must also be expanded.
Yet Beattie is far from apologetic about the purpose of the facility or its attempts to exist in Pukekohe East.
Its future now more secure, he is staunch about the facility’s right to exist.
“In our 36 years of operation this has rarely been an issue that has raised its head. I’m not saying that issues haven’t arisen from time to time, and will certainly arise again given the volume of people that we work with, their disabilities, and often the horrendous histories of mismanagement and family alienation. Certainly, our aim is slow stream rehabilitation with the goal, as far as possible, of reintegrating all clients back into the community and re-establishing family connections.”
‘He’s not your average burglar’
When it comes to the man himself, Hepi, it’s unclear what he thinks of his predicament.
But his lawyer Megan Jenkins says she doesn’t believe he is even properly aware of the legal situation he remains in.
“His combination of his physical situation as well as his mental health makes him just impossible to engage.
“At the moment he’s just not well enough. I don’t necessarily think he does [have an appreciation of the crime] to be quite honest, because the comments that he made on that occasion would seem to suggest he didn’t quite know where he was.
“He’s not your average burglar going there with the intention of doing something. What he thought he was doing I can’t possibly say. I haven’t been able to communicate with him further than about ‘yes, no, are you Kyle?’ sort of thing.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve had the reports done. He’s only got worse.”
For Valerie, each time the phone rings from her Victim Support person telling her Hepi’s last court appearance has again been delayed or rescheduled is a renewed trauma.
“For someone who has fought hard and was proud to have my own home, after spending time in a CYFS home [Oranga Tamariki] as a child and being a solo mum, my home was meant to be my sanctuary – a refuge from the chaos of the outside world as an extremely hard-working career woman and mother. But your intrusion has shattered that.
“With the initial invasion, and every breach of bail, you’ve stolen yet another piece of my peace of mind.”
In September, Valerie made the desperate decision to move from her Anselmi Ridge Rd rental property.
Following Hepi’s second breach of bail in July when he was caught again on her street, Valerie says she can’t cope with her fear and anxiety any longer, as the unresolved court case lingers.
“It’s just when you sort of realise that driving down the road every single time you’re looking up side streets to see if he’s there. The fact that he just keeps breaching bail and the number of times now that the judge has said this is your final warning. Every noise in the house ... and it’s just shit memories, and a feeling there and I don’t want it.”
She says the move has cost her thousands of dollars and will happen this weekend – after her landlord’s kindly let her out of a fixed term lease early. She will move this weekend.
“I’ve lived in the house for a year thinking it would all be dealt with. I loved that house and the landlords were amazing, so I had to give up all of that and move because of this situation.
“I just don’t think it will ever go away.”
Tom Dillane is an Auckland-based journalist covering local government and crime as well as sports investigations. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is deputy head of news.