Brother of RSA survivor backs legal action against crown

3.00pm


The brother of a woman who survived the RSA triple killings backed legal efforts to sue the Government for $5 million today.

The murders at the Panmure RSA in Auckland in December 2001 were committed while the offender, William Bell, was on parole.

Tai Hobson, whose wife Mary was among those who died, has lodged a claim in the High Court at Auckland for $50,000 for general damages and $5 million for exemplary damages and costs.

Mr Hobson says the Crown's monitoring of Bell on parole was negligent.

Bell is serving a 33-year non-parole prison term for the murders of Mrs Hobson, Wayne Johnson and William Absolum.

Another victim, Susan Couch, survived being beaten by Bell with the butt of a shotgun and being left for dead in a pool of blood.

Ms Couch's brother, Stephen Couch, said he couldn't comment on whether his family would follow Mr Hobson's lead and also take legal action against the Crown.

But he supported what Mr Hobson was doing.

"Personally, I think it's damn good that someone has done it -- it needed to be done because there's a lesson to be learnt here," he told NZPA.

"If you or I had done something as silly as what the people at Department of Corrections did in letting him out, resulting in what happened, we would have ended up in the courts one way or another."

Mr Couch said what happened to his sister had made him almost suicidal for a time.

"They put this guy away, but he had had a go at someone in my family and I was cut in half," he said.

"One, I wanted to take this clown out myself, but two, you can't. It affects the family and it just weighs on your mind and it takes a while to get through."

Mr Couch said he was "a lot better than I was", although he was critical of what he felt was a lack of help from the authorities in terms of victim support.

He declined to comment on how his sister was coping in the aftermath of her ordeal.

Mr Hobson's lawyer, David Garrett, said the negligence claim was being taken on the grounds that Bell was released from prison on parole only months before the RSA murders.

He had earlier been paroled after serving a prison term for aggravated robbery.

The statement of claim says the probation service failed to respond adequately when Bell breached various conditions of his parole at the time.

As a result of the breach of the department's duty, the statement said, Mr Hobson had suffered loss and damage, including nervous shock, emotional distress and the love and affection of his wife.

The "outrageous" breaches of duty by the department warranted punishment and the award of exemplary damages, the statement said.

The move has gained support from the Sensible Sentencing Trust, with spokesman Garth McVicar saying it was "ground-breaking stuff".

If successful it had the power to change the way the Community Probation Service, a division of the Corrections Department, worked, he said.

"Bell should not have got parole. I hope this will mean a lot more monitoring of the offenders."

Auckland QC Stuart Grieve said it was impossible to express a definitive view, but the claimants would have to prove the department was extremely negligent to get exemplary damages.

They would have to show that the negligent actions were almost deliberate.

"You can't just dismiss the claim, but the standards have to be very high."

Mr Johnson's widow, Diane Johnson, said that, while she was still considering lodging a similar claim against the Crown, Mr Hobson had her full support.

"I will be supporting Tai all the way," she said.

"There's been a lot of people who have been on parole and gone out there and committed crimes. We don't want these things happening again. The Crown needs to be sent a wake-up call and that's what Tai is trying to do."

The preliminary case is expected to go before a court next month.

- NZPA