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Focus on
Police Competence |
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Three teenage girls
wrongly jailed for eight months may be in line for tens of thousands of
dollars in compensation. The girls spent eight
months in Auckland's Mt Eden Women's Prison after they were convicted on
charge of aggravated robbery. They yesterday won
their appeal against the conviction when it was overturned by the Court of
Appeal. The three judges on the bench told the girls "we offer our
sympathy to them". But the girls' lawyer,
Gary Gotlieb, said they wanted more than sympathy. They wanted an apology
from police and compensation from the Government. Teangarua (Lucy)
Akatere and Tania Mayze Vini, both aged 17, and McCushla (Krishla) Priscilla
Fuataha, 16, had their charges quashed after the Crown's main witness, a
13-year-old girl, retracted her evidence by affidavit. The younger girl had
claimed she and the three older girls attacked a 16-year-old schoolgirl at
Three Kings Plaza, in Mt Roskill in August 1999, punching her, slashing her
with scissors and robbing her of $10. New evidence presented
to the Court of Appeal showed the 13-year-old was unreliable, had given
several different accounts of the same incident and that the three girls were
nowhere near the crime scene. Mr Gotlieb said
compensation was not the immediate priority for the three girls. He said the
main focus was their emotional wellbeing and victim support. But a compensation
claim would be lodged. Justice Minister Phil
Goff's office said today they expected a claim from Mr Gotlieb but it had yet
to be submitted. Murray Gibson, the
Auckland lawyer who won compensation of $868,000 for David Dougherty, who
spent three years in prison for a rape he did not commit, said under new
guidelines the three girls could get between $60,000 and $70,000 each. That was working on a
formula of $100,000 for each year spent in prison after a wrongful conviction.
He said David
Dougherty's compensation was an ex-gratia payment and was not based on the
guidelines. Mr Gibson said there
was also provision for exemplary damages if police misconduct could be proven
rather than just police incompetence. John Tulloch, a
spokesman for Mr Goff's office, said the $100,000-a-year-formula did not
necessarily apply to every case. He said the final
compensation amount would be decided by a Queen's counsel who would look at
the case. "It varies an
awful lot." He said once a
compensation claim had been lodged it would initially be looked at by Mr
Goff. "He makes a
judgment call and if he thinks it should proceed, it goes to a QC appointed
by Mr Goff." The Court of Appeal
said yesterday the police investigation and trial system had failed and the
wrongful conviction raised questions of conduct by the police "which is
a serious matter and must be properly investigated". The girls had
"been subjected to the demeaning experience of a public trial and the
constant rejection of their protestations of innocence". After the overjoyed
girls left the court in Auckland yesterday they said they were happy with the
ruling but "we just want the police to say sorry". Mr Gotlieb said the
system had failed the girls and their families "all the way along the
line". Police had tunnel
vision and often believed they had the offender and then found the facts to
fit the crime, he said. Police have nearly
completed their own inquiry into the arrests and the matter was also being
investigated by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA). Judge Ian Borrin, from
the PCA, told NZPA today he expected to get the full report of the police
inquiry. He said the police investigation was not on behalf of the PCA but
had been done with the PCA's approval. "It enables any
information which the investigation may disclose be used in any formal court
proceedings." The authority has no
powers to consider compensation. |
