Letters written from jail by the man who took Tukituki MP Rick Barker's secretary hostage in a siege two years ago have driven the secretary out of her job.
Jan Woodhall resigned as Mr Barker's electorate secretary after receiving two letters penned by Roger Reid in his cell at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison, near Hastings, where he is serving seven years after holding Mrs Woodhall at gunpoint in a nine-hour siege in Mr Barker's Hastings office on December 7, 1998.
Mrs Woodhall was badly shaken by her day of terror, and refused to speak about it publicly. She has maintained her silence, conveying through Mr Barker that she did not want to discuss the letters Reid sent from jail, or her subsequent resignation.
The Corrections Department will not discuss individual cases, but said inmates' mail was not read before it was received or sent, unless there was reason to suspect the correspondence contained material that would threaten or intimidate the intended recipient, or it posed a threat to the safety of any person.
Any inmate found to have committed an offence through their mail could face charges. It is understood that Reid has been transferred to the prison's seclusion wing, where he can be kept under closer watch.
- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY
Gunman's letters cause secretary to quit
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