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Allegations
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By Nicola Boyes An independent assessor
appointed to hear complaints of brutality at the Waiouru Army cadet school is
expected to be announced on Monday. But the family of cadet
Grant Bain who was shot at the school on February 13, 1981, say they are not
holding their breath. They claim the police and Army colluded to cover-up the
17-year-old's shooting as late as 2002. Andrew William Read, a
senior cadet at the school, was charged by police with careless use of a
firearm causing Grant Bain's death. The Weekend Herald
revealed the police investigation into the shooting took just six hours. It was 14 hours from
the time of the shooting to Read's appearance in the Taihape District Court.
And while the Bain family buried their son at Te Awamutu on February 18, Read
had pleaded guilty and was being sentenced to 200 hours' community service
and a $200 fine. The now-retired
detective who headed the investigation into the shooting, Piers Hunt, told
the Herald last week Read should have been charged with manslaughter but his
superior officer, Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Butler, (now deceased) would
not allow it. Police Commissioner
Steve Long has said there will be a police complaints authority investigation
into the handling of the case. Murray Bain says he
asked for a copy of the police file on his brother's death in 2002 and
received a letter from Waikato Police area commander Superintendent Kelvin
Powell in April that year. It said the file on
Grant had been found at the Police Commissioner's office and he had ordered
it to be retrieved from the archives. Mr Bain said the family
then had a visit on April 22 from the Army's director of co-ordination, Lieutenant
Darryl Tracy, who brought them the finding of the Army's commission of
inquiry into the shooting. Mr Bain said during the
visit Lieutenant Tracy said he had been speaking to police about the case. On May 17, 2002, Mr
Bain received a letter from Western Waikato area controller Inspector Graham
Matthews, who said investigations had shown the file had been sent to
Wanganui for storage and was destroyed. Mr Bain said yesterday
he could not understand why Lieutenant Tracy said he had been talking to police
about Grant's death. "It's just been a
bloody whitewash." Mr Bain, his brother
Bruce and their father Neil want a joint inquiry covering the Army and police
involvement. But a spokeswoman for
Defence Minister Mark Burton said it was not an option. It would be
constitutionally improper for the minister to question a judgement given in a
court of law and his brief could not cover the police investigation. She said the inquiry's
terms of reference would include the shooting of Grant Bain and were still being
drafted to ensure they were wide enough to cover anything the investigation
threw up. The terms of reference
and the independent person appointed to oversee the inquiry were expected to
go to Cabinet on Monday. The issue of brutality
at the cadet school goes back to 1975 when articles appeared in Truth. The newspaper published
complaints from cadets about brutality, but the stories ended when the
school's commanding officers said cadets were being moved into new barracks.
A reporter was allowed to interview cadets, who said the brutality no longer
happened at the school. |
