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Focus on
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The father of one of
three girls wrongfully jailed for seven months is happy police have
apologised, but wants the officer he believes responsible sacked. Vini Kavi said
Detective Constable Trevor Franklin, the former test cricketer who was in
charge of the case, should be dismissed. "I've got nothing
against the police, it's just him. He's the one who made my girl go into
prison. If he'd done his work properly the girls wouldn't have been
arrested." His comments followed a
visit yesterday from Superintendent Howard Broad, the Auckland district
commander, to apologise. Mr Broad said
apologising was hard. "We each join the police with a view we are going
to do good things, so to be responsible for an investigation such as this
strikes at the heart of what we're trying to do." However, he said
mistakes did occur. "In this case it seems errors compounded right
across the criminal justice system and the normal checks and balances set in
place simply didn't prevent this miscarriage of justice." The botched
investigation was a "failure of the criminal justice system", Mr
Broad said. Mr Kavi's daughter,
Tania Vini, Lucy Akatere, both 17, and Krishla Fuataha, 16, were jointly
convicted of aggravated robbery in August 1999. They were bailed in
April after more than seven months in Mt Eden Women's Prison when private
investigator Bryan Rowe and lawyer Gary Gotlieb helped persuade police to
reinvestigate. Errors were uncovered,
the girls were cleared of any involvement, and an inquiry started. Mr Broad will not
comment on the internal inquiry till it is completed, possibly next month. Mr Franklin is still
working and has employed a lawyer. Mr Kavi said the past
two years had been "hellish", but he never gave up faith in his
daughter's innocence. "People kept
saying my daughter was guilty so why did I keep fighting, but she said she
didn't do anything and I believed her." The girls are receiving
counselling and hope to return to school and normality as soon as possible.
They have signed exclusive deals with two women's magazines. |
