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Focus on
Police Competence |
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An Auckland father who
paid a man $4000 to investigate the case against his innocent daughter in
prison could get his money back in a compensation payment. Vini Kavi, the father
of 17-year-old Tania Mayze Vini, who with two other girls was wrongly
convicted last year of aggravated robbery, paid the man to help free his
daughter. But after six months,
the man failed to find anything of significance in the case and managed only
to arrange a meeting between Mr Kavi and lawyer Gary Gotlieb. Mr Gotlieb hired a
registered private investigator, former police superintendent Bryan Rowe, to
investigate the case and as a result the girls' convictions were quashed last
week. They spent seven months
in Mt Eden Women's Prison before being released. Mr Gotlieb said last
night that the man had offered to return $3000 on Friday but the offer was
not taken up because charges had been laid against him for practising as a
private investigator without a licence. Mr Kavi said he felt
the $4000 was being poorly spent at the time, but he was so desperate to free
his daughter he did not worry about the amount. "I don't know what
he did with the money. I do want it back but I don't want to see him get away
with this sort of thing another time." The Herald was unable
to contact the man yesterday. Police spokeswoman
Noreen Hegarty said yesterday that the Auckland city district police
commander, Superintendent Howard Broad, had indicated Mr Kavi's $4000 would
be taken into account in any compensation paid. Compensation estimates
range up to $70,000 for each of the three girls. Police are
investigating the way the case was conducted and Mr Broad is expected to
visit Mr Kavi's home today to apologise for the police role. The officer in charge
of the initial inquiry, former test cricketer Detective Constable Trevor
Franklin, has hired a lawyer to help defend his actions. The Court of Appeal in
Auckland last Tuesday quashed the joint conviction for aggravated robbery
against Vini and Teangarua (Lucy) Akatere, both 17, and McCushla (Krishla)
Priscilla Fuataha, 16. The court heard that
after their trial, the Crown's principal witness, a 13-year-old, retracted
her evidence by affidavit. The 13-year-old had
claimed she and the other three committed the 1999 attack on a 16-year-old
schoolgirl at Three Kings Plaza in Mt Roskill. The victim was thumped
and kicked and her head banged against a tree stump before she was cut with
scissors and robbed of $10. Krishla Fuataha, who
was said to have wielded the weapon, was sentenced to two years' jail, the
others to 18 months. |
