KEY POINTS:
This is not a game, Judge Semi Epati told Bailey Junior Kurariki when the convicted killer appeared before him this week for breaching the terms of his parole three times since November. The judge gave Kurariki a stern telling-off and then sent him back into the community. "I really should have refused bail for you," he said, "because the record shows that time and time again you have been given the opportunity to be at large or on bail terms ... that you not consume alcohol or drugs. But time and time again a drugs test has been given and you have failed."
The game goes on. Kurariki, jailed for seven years in 2001 for the manslaughter of pizza delivery man Michael Choy, was given parole on strict terms. He has repeatedly failed to abide by those terms. In most people's books that has a simple sequel, a return to jail. Yet while everyone is trying so hard to keep Kurariki out of jail he seems incapable of sticking to his side of the bargain. Judge Epati described his latest leniency as "a final chance". Some rehabilitation advocates think police and the media should let Kurariki reintegrate into society without attention. That becomes impossible as his behaviour ridicules the courts and the parole system.
Judge Epati ought to take heed of his colleague Judge Thomas Ingram of Tauranga in a case of another teenager abusing the trust placed in him by the authorities by cutting off his home detention ankle bracelet to go partying at New Year.
"People who cut off their bracelet go to prison. It is as straightforward as that ... If he [the defendant] thinks any judge is going to overlook such a serious breach without serious consequences, then he is sadly mistaken."
Zero tolerance is surely the only message that stops the "game" in its tracks.
