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The father of killer Mark Burton, who has lost his job at Auckland Zoo, says his son might have more luck keeping a job if he were a criminal rather than a mental health patient.
Mental health authorities had arranged for pyschiatric patient Burton, who stabbed his mother to death six years ago, to work at the zoo on three mornings a week as part of his preparation for discharge into the community.
He worked for four months for Second Chance Enterprises -- a company contracted by the zoo to collect and sell manure, or "zoodoo", to garden centres.
But the news - revealed by the Herald on Sunday yesterday - that he was working at the zoo came as a shock to zoo bosses who on Saturday arranged for his employment to be terminated immediately.
"We believe there are better areas than a zoo for such a high-profile person to be reintegrated back into society," zoo director Glen Holland said.
Burton, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in October 2001 of murdering his mother, Paddy Burton, in the family's Queenstown home earlier that year.
Mrs Burton's killing came about 24 hours after her son's discharge from Southland Hospital's mental health unit.
Now Burton's father Trevor Burton has said privacy laws are preventing prospective employers being told about his son's background, meaning they are in for a shock down the line.
Mr Burton told The Press if his son was a criminal, employers could find out about his past but "it's not a criminal matter, it's a mental health matter".
He did not fault the zoo for ending his son's employment.
"I can't say he was treated roughly. I believe employers especially should be given the facts," Mr Burton said.
"The unfortunate thing is doctors would say the Privacy Act prevents them from talking."
He said Mark Burton would continue to lose jobs when people found out about his background.
"Unless they can inquire they're not going to find out. They should be able to go into it fully aware of the facts and make an informed decision."
Second Chances Enterprises director Peter Jan told the paper employers could not be told of patients' histories because of the Privacy Act.
However, the clinical director of the Mason Clinic, Dr Sandy Simpson said the reintegration of mental health patients was "not a public safety issue, it was a public perception issue".
"The information is the person's own. Would you want your employer to know every detail of your health history?"
Burton's 2001 case highlighted shortcomings in the mental health system.
Southland District Health Board made confidential payments over its substandard care of him.
Burton's psychiatrist Dr Peter Fisher was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and left Southland Hospital.
Earlier this year he was found not guilty in a British court of killing a patient who had taken an overdose at a British hospital.
Fisher, now living in Devon, was in charge of the mental health ward where a man 39, was being treated for depression in 2002, when he took 50 Copraxamol tablets.
- NZPA
