Justice website names sex abuse victims

Justice Minister Simon Power has called an urgent briefing with officials tomorrow morning. Photo / Getty Images

The names of two sex abuse victims have been published on a Ministry of Justice website - a breach of automatic suppression.

Family members of the victims who were abused by their uncle as children said the two, now adult men, were mortified by the public humiliation after being alerted by the Herald on Sunday.

An investigation has been launched and Justice Minister Simon Power, who said he was "extremely concerned" by the breach, has called an urgent briefing with officials tomorrow morning.

Legally, the names of victims of sexual offending are automatically suppressed. In what appears to be an administrative error, the recent sentencing notes of their abuser were posted online, revealing their names and detailing what happened to them. The judgment was removed from the website on Friday night following inquiries by this paper.

A legal expert has called the mishap "a great irony" considering that in recent times high-profile New Zealanders have been given name suppression simply because publication of their offending might affect their career prospects.

University of Auckland Professor Warren Brookbanks said because the offender was a relative of his victims, his name should have been left off the notes, too. It wasn't.

"It's a great irony that the media are under pressure to observe these obligations but Justice itself can achieve the same by slipping up."

While it was probably a "one-off" error, the effects on the victims could be profound, he said.

Another uncle of the victims said they would not have come forward with what had happened had they they known they could be publicly identified. "It's going to affect [one of the victims]. He has a young family, it's going to affect them too. He didn't want to bring this all up in the first place."

The sentencing notes mention the "extreme reluctance" of at least one of the victims to report the offending, which happened 20 years ago when he and the other victim his cousin were primary aged children.

The offender was under 17 years old and himself a victim of sexual abuse. He would sexually violate the boys regularly near the local swimming hole in their rural community.

Earlier this month, the offender was sentenced to a total of four years' imprisonment after being convicted by a jury of eight counts of sexual violation of a boy under 12 and five counts of indecent assault or inducing an indecent act.

In a statement yesterday, deputy secretary for courts Andrew Hampton apologised for the mistake and said a review would be undertaken to find out how it happened.

He said the ministry published judicial decisions online on behalf of the courts and with the approval of the judge or judges who issue them.

"A decision of the High Court at Auckland of 4 February 2011 was published on the Courts of New Zealand website in which the names of the victims were not anonymised. The decision was removed from the website as soon as the error became known to the Ministry.

"The Ministry will be working with the judiciary to review how this error occurred and to assess if any improvements are required to the approval and publication process.

"The Ministry takes very seriously its responsibility in publishing judicial decisions on behalf of the courts. It very much regrets that this error has occurred. The Ministry will be contacting the victims to apologise."

leigh.vanderstoep@hos.co.nz