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Focus on
Police Competence |
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Three teenage girls
convicted of a crime they did not commit would receive money for counselling
as part of their total compensation, Justice Minister Phil Goff said
yesterday. He had received a
preliminary application for compensation for the teenagers. "I have made an
initial decision that payment should be available for counselling of those
young women," he told a committee of MPs. The state of mind that
they were left in after seven months in Mt Eden Prison for a crime they did
not commit meant that "we have to try to help them rebuild their
lives." He has appointed
Queen's Counsel Kristy McDonald to advise him on compensation. She would determine
the degree of innocence and decide what level of compensation should be paid
for financial and non-financial losses they suffered. A spokesman for Mr Goff
said the money for counselling would come out of the total compensation
package. Tania Vini, Teangarua
(Lucy) Akatere and McCushla Fuataha were wrongfully imprisoned in 1999 after
they were convicted of an aggravated robbery in the Auckland suburb of Three
Kings. They were released when
an Auckland lawyer and a private investigator persuaded police to reopen
their case. The Court of Appeal
later overturned the conviction and offered the girls "sympathy". Police apologised but
the girls' lawyer, Gary Gotlieb, said they deserved compensation, because the
time they spent in prison had changed their lives and seriously damaged their
education. |
