Three months to report missing boy

A confidential police report has labelled as "a disgrace" the three months it took for Child Youth and Family to officially report a 15-year-old boy missing.

Dunedin teenager Israel McNulty was placed by court order into the custody of Child Youth and Family on May 4.

The following day CYF social workers in Dunedin transferred the teenager to Whakatane's Wairaka Kokiri Trust where he was to reside under their care.

Two days later he and another youth disappeared.

McNulty has still not been located by CYF, although it says there have been several sightings of him in the Whakatane area.

National MP Katherine Rich is calling for answers on why it took three months after McNulty went missing for police to be formally notified by CYF.

The boy's father, Paul McNulty, who is on remand in Dunedin Prison, was informed his son was missing but also did not know the case had not been reported to police.

At the time a CYF social worker claimed the trust had reported McNulty missing and that the police had been involved in trying to locate the teenager.

But in a confidential police report obtained by the Herald on Sunday, youth aid officer Senior Constable John Koens said that was not quite the case. The trust had carried out its own search which CYF say police were involved in, but no one, either from the trust or CYF, followed up on the matter to officially lodge a missing persons complaint.

By the time the search had been completed the trust had discovered the two boys had made it out of the Whakatane area. They went to McNulty's friend's mother's house where they ate and showered before telling the woman they were heading to Auckland, Constable Koens said.

He said he had only been told in late June by a CYF social worker - nearly two months after McNulty went missing - that the teenager had run away from the trust.

"She said she thought she had informed youth aid about his running at the time it happened, but this is not the case."

Constable Koens said the fact a 15-year-old could be missing for months and the case not be reported to police was a disgrace. He accepted there may have been a misunderstanding between CYF and the trust, but said he believed the responsibility of reporting McNulty as a missing person "never shifted from Child Youth and Family".

Constable Koens said he had no plans to make a formal complaint.

"Recent dealings with that department and less than favourable support from my own (department) lead me to believe nothing favourable will be achieved."

Yesterday Mrs Rich described the case as a stuff-up of monumental proportions.

"They can point the finger at the trust, but the legal responsibility never shifted from CYF," she said.

"The boy's father just wants to know if his son is alive or dead."

CYF's southern regional director, Paula Attrill, claimed Auckland and Whakatane police had been notified by the trust as soon as it realised the boy was missing. A search was undertaken immediately by police and CYF were advised the following day by the trust.

CYF had also repeatedly tried contacting the boy's parents.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY