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Death threats to the son of murdered Tokoroa teacher Lois Dear highlight the Government's failure to crack down on cellphones in prisons, the National Party says.
Ms Dear's son Kevin McNeil has been a staunch critic of his mother's killer Whetu Te Hiko.
He refused to tone down his victim impact statement, which he read to the High Court at Hamilton on Friday, as Te Hiko was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
Mr McNeil first received death threats from an anonymous caller to his cellphone a month after his mother's murder in July last year.
The calls, which were reportedly difficult to trace because they were made from pre-paid cellphones, continued for six months.
Mr McNeil said he believed two of the death threats had come from inside a prison, highlighting how sentenced criminals could flout prison rules.
The report did not cite any evidence to back up Mr McNeil's claim.
He said one caller told him to "watch your step" and "watch your back". Other anonymous messages included threats to "take him out" and that his "days were numbered".
Mr McNeil said he would continue to speak his mind despite the threats.
"I don't give a shit, really, about them or what people think of what I say."
National's corrections spokesman Simon Power today said the Government needed to ensure that victims of crime were not being harassed by prisoners.
The Government had failed to a clamp down on illegal phones in prisons despite acknowledging the problem for several years, he said.
"This is not good enough. The Government must do more to protect the victims of crime."
The case highlighted the ease with which prisoners could get contraband behind bars, Mr Power said.
"This goes right back to a prison system that is so full of holes -- despite their constant state of denial -- that prisoners can get almost anything they want inside our prisons, including cellphones which they use to threaten victims."
The Government has said for years it was looking at cellphone-blocking technology that could be used in prisons.
However there had been little progress in that regard.
A spokesman for Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor today said an announcement about moves to rein in prison cellphone use would be announced "shortly".
He said Mr Power's claim that inmates could get anything they wanted behind bars was incorrect.
The Government had made big progress in intercepting contraband coming into prisons since it came to power, he said.
In the past seven years the number of prisoners taking drugs -- assessed through drug tests -- had dropped from 27.2 per cent to 13 per cent.
He said the growing number of cellphones and related components confiscated in prisons -- up from 250 in 2003 to 1047 in 2005 -- was testimony to prison authorities strict enforcement of the law.
- NZPA
