Home detention under fire

A man on home detention walked away from his house and robbed and viciously attacked a sick young Christchurch woman.

News of Michael Desmond Coles' escape and crime spree is the latest blow to the scheme already under fire after dangerous prison escapee and kidnapper Sean Patrick Broderick left his home prison in Hamilton last month.

Broderick is still on the run and critics are calling for home detention to be canned.

Coles was sentenced on Friday to two years and four months in prison for the attack on 33-year-old Carole Marfell - a sentence she says does not recognise the damage he has inflicted on her.

Ms Marfell, a sickness beneficiary, was at an ATM in a Christchurch shopping mall on September 1 last year when Coles struck. He had walked away from home detention two days earlier.

She remembers nothing of the attack, except waking on the floor. "I couldn't remember where I was. I didn't even remember my name." Ms Marfell was rushed to hospital, suffering from injuries to her neck, jaw and elbow. Security footage showed Coles had shoved his elbow under her jaw and slammed her to the ground.

She still has only limited use of her elbow, has lost the peripheral vision in her right eye and has been told she may never be able to fully turn her neck. The attack was a double blow for Ms Marfell who was already suffering post traumatic stress disorder following an earlier incident.

"This has just brought back all of that," she said. "I've got handrails in the shower to help me shower, I've had to have a friend stay off and on, I live by myself, I have to lock all the doors to feel safe. If I do have to go to the dairy, which is just around the corner, I'm scanning every male. It's just hell.

"I wanted this to be a deterrent to others and it's not."

A spokesman for Minister of Corrections Paul Swain said he had received a report on the security bracelet system used to monitor people on home detention and was talking to Justice Minister Phil Goff about whether the parole board or judges should decide to release an offender to their home. Currently the board decides.

A global positioning tracking system of offenders is due to be trialled later this year. But short of embedding chips in an offender's body, offenders could still cut off their bracelets and flee undetected.

At the moment, Chubb security officers monitor each offender and an alarm is raised if they tamper with their bracelets or leave home without permission. But if they do leave, there is no way of knowing where they have gone.

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark and groups such as the Sensible Sentencing Trust say Coles' and Broderick's escapes show the home detention system should end.

"It's time that the people who administer the system sit down with people like Carole and listen to their horror stories," Mr Mark said. "Maybe then they will realise they are responsible for keeping people safe."

KEY FACTS

Home detention was introduced in New Zealand in 1999.

About 6000 people have served home detention since it was introduced.

In the year to June 2004, 63 of the 1950 offenders at home ended up back in jail.

Home detention costs $23,602 a year per prisoner, compared with $58,000 to keep a prisoner in a cell.

- Herald on Sunday