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Focus on
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Three teenage girls
jailed for a crime they did not commit, had their convictions quashed by the
Court of Appeal today. Teangarua Lucy Akatere,
17, Tania Mayze Vini, 17 and Krishla Priscilla Fuataha, 16, were jailed last
year for what a judge described as a "sadistic" slashing of a
school girl. However, in the Court
of Appeal at Auckland today, Justices Robertson, Gault and Salmon overturned
the conviction which was not opposed by police, and told the three they had
the court's sympathy for the injustice which had wrongly sent them to prison.
Crown prosecutor Kieran
Raftery told the court today the convictions were unsafe and a retrial would
not be sought. The court heard after
the trial an affidavit was produced by a principal witness retracting the
original evidence. Facts were also
produced proving the three were not in the vicinity of the Three Kings Mall
in Auckland when a 16-year-old was slashed with a pair of scissors and robbed
of $10. Much of the new
evidence was not fresh and could have been obtained with reasonable diligence
before the trial, Court of Appeal said today. "The investigation
and trial system failed in this case," said Justice Gault. The court said the
wrong conviction raised questions about the conduct of the police which must
be investigated. "Three young
persons have been let down by the system." One of the three,
Fuataha, was jailed for two years, the other two were jailed for 18 months
last September. "They have been
subjected to the demeaning experience of a public trial and the constant
rejection of their protestations of innocence. "We offer our
sympathy to them," Justice Gault said. Outside the court the
lawyer for the three, Gary Gotlieb, QC, said it was a "systemic failure
all the way along the line" to the "terrible injustice" which
led to a conviction for a crime the three did not commit. "There were so
many things which went wrong. In the end we picked it up with a private
investigator." He said a compensation
claim would be lodged but the main focus now was to get the three counselling
and look after their wellbeing. "They need all the
support they can get." Mr Gotlieb said
decision today had shown the system could right itself. He said the emotional
cost to the family was gut-wrenching and left the judicial system very
embarrassed. |
