111 leak crashes marriage

Melanie Stewart split with husband Jason after he leaked the police document to TV3. Picture / Paul Estcourt

The police call centre worker who quit after her husband leaked to the media details of the Iraena Asher 111 call says it destroyed their marriage.

Melanie Stewart has spoken for the first time about why she took home an internal document from the police northern communications centre in Newton.

Mrs Stewart said she did not know her husband, Jason, had leaked the information until police confronted her with the document containing their home fax number.

It had been given to police by journalist Hannah Hodson, who resigned from TV3 over the leak and now works for TVNZ.

The Stewarts, who have two children aged 8 and 13, have split after 16 years of marriage.

"It was betrayal. I could never trust him again," Mrs Stewart told the Weekend Herald.

TV3 provided her with legal assistance over the leak and her separation. It has also paid for her and the children to visit family in Brisbane for six weeks.

Mrs Stewart said some colleagues believed she and her husband conspired to leak the document.

It revealed details of the conversation between Ms Asher and the call taker who dealt with her emergency calls to police on October 10.

The student and part-time model had been socialising in Piha but phoned police about 9pm and said she felt scared and was being pressured for sex.

Police sent a taxi instead of a patrol car but it went to Paihia Rd, Onehunga, instead of Piha Rd in the west coast settlement 40km away.

Ms Asher has not been seen since and the police have launched a major review of their communications centres.

Mrs Stewart said she was disappointed at how Ms Asher's case was handled, but never wanted to hurt the police and did not want to criticise colleagues.

The night Ms Asher called, Mrs Stewart was handling jobs in a different police district and was not fully aware of what had happened.

She returned to work on October 16 and searched for the Asher call log. She was interested to see what had been said and how the call had been handled.

Mrs Stewart said that because of work pressures she printed the log and put it on her desk. She took it home because she was concerned about leaving sensitive information lying around at work.

Mrs Stewart said she showed her husband the document and then put it in the "burning recycle bin" at their rural home.

She said two days later, while she was at work, he faxed it to TV3.

Confronted with the document and her husband's handwriting, she felt "like my whole world had crashed in. I just never would have thought he would have ... I couldn't comprehend it. I would never compromise the police. Not in a million years. A colleague dealt with the aftermath of the incident and she was upset at the leak and I felt for her, I guess because it was so close to home. I also felt they needed to catch who had done it".

Mrs Stewart said she never felt pressured to quit but was aware the police commissioner wanted someone held accountable.

"They wanted to go into a full disciplinary inquiry for serious misconduct, in which case I wouldn't have had any options. The Police Association negotiated with them to allow me to resign.

"It was very clear what the outcome of an inquiry was going to be. All they had to prove for serious misconduct was the fact I had taken it home, and I had already admitted that. So it was pretty clear."

She asked her husband why he had leaked the document.

"He believed the police were lying.

"He felt there was a moral issue there that the police had been lying about how the incident had been handled, and this transcript apparently proved it."

He had apologised but Mrs Stewart felt his loyalty had been to the Asher family rather than his own.

"I don't hate him. I just don't understand and I'm hurt by him."

Yesterday Mr Stewart admitted he should have been "smarter" about sending the information to TV3. However, he was not sorry he had done it because it "needed to get out".

"I thought the media protected their sources."

He said his wife was "very, very good at her job" and the police could not afford to lose a loyal and experienced call dispatcher.

He was sorry his wife had left him.

"I am always hopeful [she will come back] but I can't blame her for feeling the way she does."