US sex killer beats NZ's border checks

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

EXCLUSIVE - A necrophiliac, jailed for the gruesome killing of his girlfriend in the United States, has become the fourth serious offender to slip through New Zealand immigration controls this year.

The American was discovered when he indecently exposed himself to a woman near Te Awamutu.

Bradley Nelson Page was convicted in 1984 of voluntary manslaughter for killing his girlfriend, Bibi Lee, while she was jogging on a mountain trail in hills above Oakland, California.

He confessed to the killing five weeks after Bibi Lee died, and also admitted committing necrophilia.

Under the US law applying to his case, voluntary manslaughter is an intentional homicide under provocation sufficient to incite an "ordinary person" to "sudden and intense passion".

Page came to the attention of New Zealand police when he was arrested on January 31 after exposing himself to a woman tramper on Mt Kakepuku, about 11km from Te Awamutu.

The US case has been posted on an internet site and confirmed to the Herald by New Zealand police who handled Page's case.

Bibi Lee was a brilliant mathematics student, and the case caused a sensation when civil rights advocates protested against Page's conviction, claiming his confession had been coerced.

His appeals kept him out of prison until 1992, and he was released in 1995 after serving 2 1/2 years of a six-year sentence.

The Immigration Service would not say when Page entered New Zealand, but spokesman Ian Smith confirmed he travelled on a tourist visa.

He appeared in the Te Awamutu District Court on February 8, and was convicted and fined $250, with $130 court costs.

He left New Zealand within days.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said police did not know that Page had entered the country until he was arrested.

"I don't know how he came in, or what he came in on," Mr Neilson said.

"We didn't know about it. Unless we've had formal notification from another international agency, we wouldn't know of anybody's travel movements.

"We would need to be notified to be able to do anything. If we're not aware of it then there's not much we can do."

In previous cases this year:

* Scotsman Archie McCafferty, aged 53, was arrested in Kawerau last month and deported after failing to declare his criminal convictions when entering New Zealand.

He was jailed in Australia in 1973 for killing three people and deported to Britain after his release in 1997.

* Indian sex offender Balwinder Singh was found living in Pukekohe last month after beating immigration controls by changing his name.

He was deported after serving a prison sentence for the attempted rape of a deaf woman in 1987.

* Criminally insane killer Claude John Gabriel escaped from psychiatric care in Australia to hide in New Zealand. He returned to Australia voluntarily on May 12.

Mr Smith said Immigration Service checks were not foolproof, and relied mainly on information from other agencies, and on passengers filling out immigration documents honestly.

"We certainly rely on other agencies to give us information if they believe a person may be trying to come into the country.

"Even the magnitude of that task is enormous."

He said Page had been flagged on the system and would not be allowed to enter the country again.

"Providing, of course, that he comes in under his own name and doesn't use false documents or passport to re-enter."

Mr Smith said the Immigration Service would introduce a computer network system next year to screen passengers bound for New Zealand before they boarded an aircraft.

"Once we get our advanced passenger processing system in place, it will open up more avenues for us to get information on people before they arrive in the country."

It is hoped that the new system will eventually accept information obtained from biometrics - systems that identify travellers by biological traits ranging from digital signatures to digital thumbprints and iris, palm or face scans.