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Focus on
Police Competence |
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Police tardiness was
delaying compensation for three teenage girls who spent seven months in jail
for crimes they did not commit, their lawyer said yesterday. Teangarua Akatere and
Tania Mayze Vini, both 17, and McCushla Priscilla Fuataha, 16, all of
Auckland, were freed on bail from Mt Eden women's prison last April and their
convictions for aggravated robbery were quashed by the Court of Appeal in
October. Lawyer Gary Gotlieb
said police were yet to hand over details of the original investigation of
the case, despite repeated telephone calls, e-mails and letters. "They've had since
April. They're being coy. They don't want me to see it and are trying to say
there are parts of it that are confidential," he said. The detective in charge
of re-investigating the case, Senior Sergeant Stuart Allsopp-Smith, said an
internal police investigation had to be finished before he could give the
original files to Mr Gotlieb. The investigation was completed last week. Mr Gotlieb said he
could not put a figure on the compensation claims without seeing the file. It has previously been
reported that it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. |
