The Parole Board has apologised to a child sex abuse victim after failing three times to notify her about her rapist stepfather’s upcoming hearings.
The third failure meant the offender was released on parole without her knowledge.
She said the triple botch-up was “ridiculous” and she called on the board to do better for victims in future.
Emma (not her real name) was 11 when her stepfather began sexually assaulting her.
She did not report the abuse until she was an adult.
The man was later convicted of 14 charges, including six of rape. He was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison with a minimum non-parole period of eight years.
He became eligible for parole in January last year.
As a registered victim, Emma should have been notified about his hearing three months in advance, allowing her time to make a submission to the board.
She did not get a formal notification until December, and only after she asked about it.
She managed to put a submission together in time. Parole was refused.
Emma did not make a complaint as she assumed she would be properly notified in future.
A second hearing for the rapist was scheduled for January 16 this year.
Again, there was no notification.
On December 31, Emma was told by a lawyer connected to her family with knowledge of the case that the hearing was coming up.
She enlisted the help of a victim advocate and tried to contact the board for information.
There was no response until January 8, when staff returned from the holiday period.
Emma was able to make a “rushed” submission.
Parole was refused. The board then investigated why Emma was not notified a second time.
It emerged her notification letter was delivered to an old address.
“Basically, I slipped through the cracks,” she said.
“I got a formal apology from the Parole Board for that, and my contact details were basically tripled to make sure that before the next hearing I would be contacted.”
The third parole hearing was set for July 8.
Again, there was no notification. Emma found out about the hearing from the third-party lawyer.
“I learned that information at 5.30pm on the Monday and I called the Parole Board,” she said.
“I was told that the hearing had happened that day, that the offender was set to be released pending deportation and that it was basically too late and there was nothing I could do.”
“They agreed to hear me that Thursday and take into account whatever I had to say - but it was on the understanding that unless I said something very significant, they weren’t going to change the decision.
“They heard me. They haven’t changed their decision.”
Emma accepted her stepfather had been released but she could not accept the botched notifications.
“It’s a pretty horrible situation… it’s pretty bad,” she said.
“It’s the fact it’s been three different times, three different issues - it’s ridiculous.”
After a second investigation, the board found “human error” to blame and sent another formal apology to Emma.
“Basically, the conclusion was that an electronic copy of my notification letter was created, checked and finalised by a hearing manager,” Emma said.
“The next step in the process is for the hearing manager to draft an email to you, attaching a copy of that letter.
“The step was never completed.
“They then said that there was another check that was supposed to happen to make sure the letter was sent out - but due to another human error that didn’t happen.
“They said they have since implemented additional checks that are also done manually to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future - but it feels like the whole system is just made up of fixes that they’ve come up with after the fact of finding an error.”
Emma was furious that she had been overlooked three times - more so when she learned about other victims who had been through the same thing previously.
“That’s my major concern,” Emma said.
“I’m pretty tough. I can take this sort of thing and I’ll fight back but there are a lot of victims who would just rather not have to go through this whole process of fighting for their rights after dealing with everything they’ve had to deal with.
“And I don’t want other people to have that feeling I had of ‘I’ve lost my opportunity to have my say’.
“It’s a legal right to have your say at a parole hearing. I just need the Parole Board to really, really understand the damage that this sort of thing can do to people.
“I want them to get it right in future. I don’t want this to happen to other people.”
Parole Board chairman Sir Ron Young and director Karyn McLean provided a joint statement about Emma’s notifications.
“We deeply regret what has happened for this victim.
“The victim has every reason to feel let down and disappointed in what happened. We have apologised unreservedly and repeat that apology again now.”
Young said he would welcome the opportunity to meet with Emma and apologise personally.
He also wanted her to know that changes were being made to the notification process.
While some of the notification process was automated there were a “range of manual steps involved”.
The failures in Emma’s notifications were “the result of human error in some of those steps”.
Young and McLean said work on “a new end-to-end digital solution that would automate many of these steps and provide greater assurance that tasks have been completed” was “well underway”.
“We expect this new system to be launched late this year.
“In the meantime, we have reviewed where we made mistakes in our processes and have made changes intended to prevent any repetition of what happened to this victim.”
Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz
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