By MONIQUE DEVEREUX
Dwayne Hedges, the Timaru-born man convicted of murdering his 4-year-old cousin in Australia, has been deported to New Zealand and is understood to be living in Christchurch.
Hedges was 14 when he was convicted of the murder of his cousin, Michaela O'Connor, in Perth six years ago and was deported last Friday.
Yesterday was the anniversary of Michaela's death.
Hedges served five years of his 7 1/2-year sentence. He is now 20 and because his sentence was finite, he is not subject to any parole or supervision after his release.
He had shifted to Australia to live with his aunt and uncle early in 1994 because he was "running wild" in New Zealand.
His uncle, Tennyson O'Connor, said that as a 9-year-old Hedges attacked his younger sister and set her hair on fire, and by the age of 12 he was staying out late at night on the streets.
He was living with his grandmother because his parents had separated. Mr O'Connor said both of Hedges' parents, Andrea and Norman, had served time in prison for violent crimes.
When Tennyson and Patricia O'Connor visited their New Zealand family in 1993 they saw Hedges was "in need of a stable family life."
They invited him to live with them.
"Of course, we wish we hadn't," Mr O'Connor said yesterday. "It certainly cost us dearly, more than we could ever have imagined."
Mr O'Connor said that if he and his wife had known their nephew had set his own sister's hair on fire, they would not have taken him in at all.
"Unfortunately, we found that out later. At the time we just thought he was going off the rails because of the unstable family background. We thought we could help."
Mr O'Connor said the police involved in the case had told him last week that Dwayne was to be sent to New Zealand last Friday. But other Australian Government officials had been less than forthcoming with information.
The O'Connor family had not been officially told where in New Zealand Hedges was living, although they understood his mother lived in Christchurch and his father in Timaru.
Patricia O'Connor and Andrea Hedges are sisters, but the families have been estranged since Michaela's death.
Yesterday, Justice Minister Phil Goff said he had asked the Australian Attorney-General for information about the risk of Hedges' reoffending and the risk to the New Zealand public, but was refused because the crime was committed when Hedges was a minor.
All details of the case were suppressed in Australia because of his age.
But Mr Goff said the Justice Ministry had contacted Norman Hedges, who had agreed to try to get Dwayne involved in "some support options," although these conditions would be voluntary.
But the minister would not confirm which city that would be in and would not confirm if Hedges was already in New Zealand.
He said the problems the parents had at the time Hedges shifted to Australia had been resolved and "his father is capable of looking out for him."
Mr Goff said that although he did not have any official information on whether Hedges would pose a risk to the public, he said that was "not my impression."
But if the Australian authorities did pass on any concerns, New Zealand legislation would enable the police to issue a public warning to the community in which Hedges lived.
But Mr O'Connor said the New Zealand public had a right to know where Hedges was.
"Michaela's murder was not just a one-off event by an angry young teenager. He is one sick puppy. He was violent before he came to us and he will no doubt be violent again," he said.
"I just don't want this tragedy to happen to anyone else."
Child-murderer comes back to New Zealand
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