Lawsuit 'will depend on evidence of negligence'

By BRIDGET CARTER


Prime Minister Helen Clark says all New Zealanders feel enormous sorrow for the families affected by the RSA triple killings.

But she said suing the Government for alleged negligence was "another matter".

Her comments come only days after the Herald reported that the husband of one of the victims is suing the Government for $5 million.

Tai Hobson, whose wife Mary was murdered two years ago at the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA by William Bell, says the Crown's monitoring of Bell while he was on parole was negligent.

He has lodged a claim in the High Court at Auckland for $50,000 in general damages and $5 million in exemplary damages and for costs.

Yesterday, Helen Clark said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme that she did not want to comment on the legal proceedings.

As for the number of cases of this kind, in which people on parole killed others, she said that, tragically, there was recidivism.

"People do come out, they do reoffend," she said.

But the case would depend on whether there was negligence by authorities.

The case was being taken on the grounds that when the Department of Corrections released Bell only months before the RSA murders, it did not act appropriately when he breached various conditions of his parole.

Bell is now serving a 33-year non-parole prison term for the murder of Mrs Hobson, Wayne Johnson and William Absolum at the RSA in December 2001.

Stephen Franks, justice spokesman for Act, said the party welcomed the move by Mr Hobson.

"I've seen the official report on the handling of Bell," he said.

"He wasn't a risk. He was an inevitability."

Mr Franks said the lawsuit was on behalf of every New Zealander who voted in a referendum for the Government to get tough on crime.

Auckland QC Stuart Grieve said the claimants would have to prove the department was extremely negligent to win such a case.

Garth McVicar of the Sensible Sentencing Trust said the claim was the first of its kind and ground-breaking.