Editorial: Price to pay for breaking the law

While the guilty face punishment in the form of, for example, fines, community service or incarceration, there is also another price to pay.

One of the key roles of a local media organisation like the Rotorua Daily Post is to be the eyes and ears of our readers.

This is particularly important when it comes to court coverage.

People who commit crimes and are caught face the New Zealand justice system.
While the guilty face punishment in the form of, for example, fines, community service or incarceration, there is also another price to pay.

For the most part, justice is a public process. Not only must it be done, it must be seen to be done.

That's where we come in.

Of course, many who come before the courts don't want everyone knowing what they've been up to.

You can imagine the amount of complaints we've received fro

And now it seems some judges are taking negative publicity into account when sentencing.

In New Plymouth in March Judge Chris Sygrove sentenced Beverley Anne Sepuloni to six months' home detention and 200 hours' community work and ordered her to pay $15,000 reparation after she admitted charges including using a document for pecuniary advantage and obtaining by deception.

The judge reduced the starting point of the sentence by three months to take into account factors including the publicity the case had received in the media.

But this ignores the fact that the public are entitled to know, and that bad publicity is already part of the price you pay for breaking the law.

It's also a major deterrent for would-be criminals.

This week name suppression was argued regarding a Rotorua businessman who has been jailed on sex charges.

The man's wife says she will lose everything if he is named publicly, and has asked for permanent suppression of his name.

Her name and the name of associated businesses are permanently suppressed.

Justice Ailsa Duffy this week reserved her decision.

This man committed a horrific crime. His victims, who were young girls at the time of the offending, want him named and shamed.

Yes, there may be collateral damage, with the emphasis on may be, but that's on him. Crime has victims, both direct and indirect.

We think the man should be named.