Probation manager 'gut-sick' after RSA killings

By BRIDGET CARTER

Long before William Bell was arrested for the RSA triple murders, Jean Lonergan knew he was the killer.

The news of the murders came across the radio on December 8, 2001, while she was standing in the aisle of a Browns Bay supermarket.

Immediately, her mind went to the offenders from the Mangere Community Probation Service where she was acting manager.

It was so short-staffed and under-resourced her burned-out probation officers were not carrying out all their duties because it was too dangerous - there were no cellphones and no back-up for home visits.

The service was responsible for some of the most violent offenders, including William Bell.

Unable to put the case from her mind, she went to work, looked through files and became more convinced the killer was Bell. A call from her manager confirmed it.

The news, she said, made her sick, but it was no surprise.

"It was a gut-sick reaction," she said. "I just thought, 'Oh my God. I was right'."

Mrs Lonergan has come forward to talk for the first time about how she believes the service failed the families of the RSA victims.

Today, Government lawyers will attempt to have landmark court action taken by Tai Hobson, whose wife Mary was murdered by Bell, struck out. Mr Hobson is suing the Crown, claiming mistakes by the Corrections Department allowed Bell to murder his wife.

Mrs Lonergan said she welcomed the court action. She hoped it would give people a chance to look at the service's operational constraints.

The Corrections Department and the Corrections Minister refused to comment last night.

Mrs Lonergan said before Bell was arrested staff had been on strike. On some days no probation officers would be at work.

Bell's probation officer was a young mother of four and was the best officer there, but she had not been entering information about Bell into the computer.

"If I had known that he was doing an alcohol course, that he was working in the RSA, I would not have supported that. I would have taken different actions."

After the murders, Bell's probation officer fell apart and for a time was unable to return to work.

Mrs Lonergan said the killings motivated her to strive to fix problems within the service.

But in the months leading up to her resignation in October last year she often broke down in tears.

She was subject to abuse - her car windscreen was smashed and her daughter received an email saying Mrs Lonergan was the real RSA killer.

Corrections reviewed Bell's probation file after his arrest. The investigation found a number of "systemic and management issues [at the Mangere probation centre] that were contributing to low morale and performance failures such as the poor management of Bell's parole".


DEATH TRAIL

December 2001: William Bell murders Mary Hobson, Wayne Johnson and Bill Absolum. He also attempts to murder Susan Couch, but she survives.

February 2003: Bell is sentenced to life for the murders. The Department of Corrections inquiry finds "performance failures" and "poor management" of Bell's parole.

May 2004: Government goes to court to try to strike out Tai Hobson's $5 million claim that mistakes by the Corrections Department allowed Bell to murder his wife Mary.