Notorious killer's final few hours

The final hours of notorious murderer and rapist Taffy Hotene have been revealed as part of a coroner's inquest which has exposed critical flaws in systems at Whanganui Prison.
Since the death of Hotene at the prison on November 26, 2009, prisons throughout New Zealand have been forced to adopt a new policy for keeping accurate records of all inmates' movements behind bars.
Hotene, 39, received an 18-year non-parole sentence in October 2000 for murdering Auckland journalist Kylie Jones, 23, and preventative detention for raping her.
He had completed eight years out of a 12-year prison sentence for attacking three Wanganui women and was out on parole when he attacked and killed Ms Jones.
Hotene was also involved with Black Power and had a history of violence.
He had first appeared in court at age 15 for theft, and again at age 17 for attempted rape at knifepoint.
Yesterday was the final day of an inquest into Hotene's death before Coroner Carla na Nagara.
On the day he died, Hotene was working at a pre-cast concrete factory within the prison grounds. He had been painting pre-cast panels for the Ohakea air base.
Prison instructor John Kuratau said that each day when the eight inmates finished at the factory, four would stay behind to clean up, including Hotene.
Mr Kuratau said that at 3pm on November 26, 2009, he scanned the inmates who had finished work and were going back to their units.
John Hackshaw, principal instructor at the factory, told the inquest he received a phone call from a prison officer saying Hotene had not returned to his unit.
But 10 minutes later he was phoned again to say Hotene had been located and staff thought he was in a craft room at the unit.
Ten minutes after that, Mr Hackshaw was phoned and told Hotene had not been found after all, and to ring control.
For 30 minutes, prison and factory staff searched the large factory yard. Hotene's body was found at 4.20pm.
Department of Corrections inspector Niuia Aumua said he had found "significant shortcomings" in the way records had been kept by prison officers at Whanganui Prison.
In his analysis, he said the unit records had not correlated with the actual number of inmates.
However, there had been system changes since those shortcomings were discovered, he said.
Whanganui Prison manager Hati Kaiwai said custodial prison staff and activities instructors had legal obligations surrounding the movement of inmates.
There had been errors that day and the forms had not been filled in properly ascertaining where the prisoners were, he said.
Mr Kaiwai said that system was not used now.
Ms na Nagara asked if there was a system breakdown because staff did not know who was in the unit and who had stayed behind at the factory.
Mr Kaiwai agreed, saying it was a poor use of the system and he accepted the coroner's criticism.
The system had been inappropriately used and staff had not signed prisoners in and out correctly, he said.
Ms na Nagara asked if that meant prisoners were roaming freely between the factory and their units.
Mr Kaiwai said yes, it should not happen, but occasionally it did.
Since Hotene's death there had been a national review of all prison systems and an upgrade on security relating to musters.
In the units, staff had previously been carrying out hourly face-to-name checks of all the prisoners, he said.
This meant prison staff were unnecessarily tied up in paperwork at their computers, he said.
However, the new system meant that, as of April 1, prisoner checks were done at unlock and lock-up, with a random check carried out during the day.
"It allows staff to more actively manage prisoners rather than having to carry out an hourly muster."
He said the search for Hotene had taken far too long and that there had been a lot of confusion because forms had not been filled in properly.
Ms na Nagara said the investigation highlighted significant gaps in the systems of Whanganui Prison. She reserved her decision.
 
THE CHANGES
- The Department of Corrections introduced policy changes on April 1 this year, following the death of Taffy Hotene in Whanganui Prison. The changes are:
- Hourly face-to-name checks of inmates in units have been replaced with five checks every 24 hours, including lockup, unlock and random checks through the day and night shifts.
- Inmates on working programmes must be collected and delivered to a central muster point.
- The original muster form has been replaced with a new check-off form for officers to record inmate numbers.
- The range of CCTV security cameras will be extended in the factory yard.
- Contractors and deliveries to the concrete factory at Whanganui prison will now have to deliver within set hours.
- All areas will be searched on a regular basis for high-risk tools.