Victim's mother wants to stop prison compo

Ida Hawkins' daughter was killed by Sam Te Hei in 1987.

The mother of a murdered teenager told MPs yesterday the system needed to be changed to prevent prisoners receiving compensation payouts.

Sam Te Hei killed Ida Hawkins' 15-year-old daughter, Colleen Burrows, in 1987. He was one of nine prisoners, including his brother Warren Te Hei, who were in 2000 awarded a total of $325,000 for mistreatment in Mangaroa Prison in Hawkes Bay.

Te Hei is claiming money for the second time for the way he was treated in the country's top security prison at Paremoremo.

His share of the first payout was understood to be $90,000 and unconfirmed reports said he was claiming $75,000 in his second claim for his treatment at Paremoremo.

"He murdered my daughter ... because my daughter refused to have sex with him. He ran her over and booted her and kicked her all over her body," Mrs Hawkins told the justice and electoral committee yesterday.

"I feel the justice system needs to be changed to stop prisoners like Sam Te Hei receiving any payout. He murdered my daughter. What do you think he's in prison for? And now he's asking for compensation for his human rights."

The committee is hearing submissions on the Prisoners and Victims Claims Bill which seeks to take compensation from prisoners and give it to their victims.

The bill followed public outrage over the $130,000 award last year to five criminals for mistreatment in solitary confinement.

Mrs Hawkins said she and her children had been so happy until her daughter was killed.

"He took all that away from me, the happiness of my child, my daughter, my eldest child," she said.

"He's taken everything from me. At some stage there I thought he may have taken my life too."

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar, who appeared beside Mrs Hawkins, said her appearance before the committee had been courageous.

He said he had seen a huge lift in Mrs Hawkins since she had been involved with the Sensible Sentencing Trust. She had started to come to terms with what had happened.

Mr McVicar said nobody thought inmates should be abused in prison but awarding monetary compensation was a "huge, huge offence".

When prisoners had genuine cases, compensation should be in the form of rehabilitation tied into the parole process, he said.

Lawyer Tony Ellis, representing the Council of Civil Liberties, said the council was opposed to the bill in principle. "This legislation is abundantly discriminatory and anti-democratic."

"What you ought to be doing is fixing the system so that people aren't entitled to compensation in the first place because they aren't beaten up, or otherwise abused in the system," Mr Ellis said.

He said there were not two classes of victims. Prisoners could also be victims.

- NZPA