49 APOLOGIES
‘Sorry’ after police raid
‘Why would I say my baby was in the freezer?’
02 October 2008
Two government agencies have apologised to a grieving mother for a blunder that led to police officers searching her house for her dead baby’s body.
A Work and Income error prompted police to bang on Charlene Kihi’s door, claiming they had information that she had stashed her four-month-old son’s body in her freezer.
Ms Kihi had buried her son two months earlier, an inquest had been held - and she had merely contacted Work and Income seeking a food grant.
The Palmerston North mother of two told The Dominion Post she was disgusted at the way she was treated and could no longer bear to live in her house.
Ms Kihi buried Tuumoto in July. She had woken up to find him dead in the bed beside her.
A mix-up with another person at Work and Income two months later led police to her door.
“It was disgusting,” she said. “Once they came I was shattered. It brought baby’s death right back. I was in such a state. And my poor other kids - I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I’ve had to send them away for the school holidays.”
A coroner found Tuumoto died of sudden infant death syndrome. He was buried at Kelvin Grove cemetery a few days after his death and the funeral directors had filed a request with Work and Income to cover the funeral costs.
All that remained was for Ms Kihi to take in a bank statement, but, distraught at her child’s death, she forgot to.
Two weeks ago she asked her Work and Income case manager for a food grant to help provide for her other two children, aged one and five. She was later told by police that the manager reported Ms Kihi had said the baby was in a freezer.
Police arrived at her home last Friday and looked in her deep freeze, fridge-freezer and even checked other rooms for hidden freezers, but found no baby.
“Why would I say my baby was in the freezer? I never even mentioned a freezer,” Ms Kihi said. “Police and Winz should have checked. It’s such a sensitive issue … This whole thing’s like a kick in the guts. If I can’t trust Winz who else can I turn to for support?”
Ms Kihi, who has not stayed in her home since the police search, received an apology from police but heard nothing from Work and Income till yesterday afternoon - after The Dominion Post began making inquiries.
Work and Income deputy chief executive Patricia Reade said the mix-up “arose over confusion with another person’s situation” and the agency would make sure Ms Kihi received all the support it could give. “I am devastated that this has happened and that Ms Kihi had to go through such an appalling ordeal. I am deeply sorry we got it so very wrong.”
Detective Sergeant David Clifford confirmed police had called at Ms Kihi’s home to try to establish the accuracy of the information passed on to them from Work and Income. They were also investigating how the mix-up happened.
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Police Minister Annette King has acknowledged Nelson woman Debbie Ashton died in a car crash because her department failed to manage the risk presented by a repeat offender who was also a protected police witness.
Speaking during a snap debate in Parliament yesterday, Ms King said police had placed too much emphasis on the risk to the police witness, Jonathan Allan Barclay, rather than managing the risk to the Nelson community.
Ms Ashton, 20, died in a December 2006 crash involving a car driven by Barclay, who days before had appeared in Nelson District Court on a drink-driving charge.
The police, a probation officer, the Corrections Department and a lawyer kept Barclay’s past offending secret because of his police witness status. (They misled the Court)
Barclay was treated as a first-time offender, fined $500 and ordered to surrender his driving licence.
A few weeks later, however, he crossed the centre line in a speeding car that collided with Ms Ashton’s vehicle, killing her.
“The offender should have been recalled to prison when convicted of driving with excess breath-alcohol and the decision not to recall him was inexcusable,” Ms King told Parliament.
Nelson MP Nick Smith said the sad impression left in the wake of Ms Ashton’s needless death was that protected police witnesses could get away with anything.
Barclay had been allowed to proceed all the way through the court system being treated as a first offender.
At the time of the impact that killed Ms Ashton, Barclay’s car was airborne and travelling at more than 160kmh in a 45kmh zone, Dr Smith said.
Barclay is serving a 5 1/2 year sentence for manslaughter.
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Police apologise for woman’s death
5:00AM Thursday July 10, 2008
Judy and Ted Ashton, with a photograph of their daughter Debbie, during yesterday’s press conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Police and the Department of Corrections publicly apologised yesterday for mistakes that allowed a man who should have been in jail to drive the car that killed their daughter.
Debbie Ashton, 20, died after the car driven by Jonathan Alan Barclay crashed into hers in December 2006.
Barclay should have been in jail, but was under a police witness protection programme and used his assumed name in court when he was charged with a driving offence in November the same year.
The court did not know his real name, and he was treated as a first offender.
In May last year, he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison for manslaughter for causing the death of Ms Ashton.
“In this tragic case … police focused on the risk to the witness, however failed to manage the risk of the witness to the community he was relocated to,” Superintendent Win van der Welde, police national manager of crime services which runs the programme, said yesterday.
“For this I have personally apologised to the Ashton family.”
Corrections’ general manager of community probation and psychological services, Katrina Casey, said the department had not managed the offender “to our expected standards”.
“I have apologised personally and in writing to the Ashton family.”
She expressed her deepest regret for the shortcomings revealed in the ministerial inquiry carried out by Kristy McDonald QC.
“We allowed the covert nature and the need for secrecy around the … programme to interfere with our proper management of the parolee.”
Ms Casey said one of her department’s former employees would have been subject to employment action if they had not already left Corrections.
Ms Ashton’s mother, Judy Ashton, told the Herald she felt far from satisfied after the release of the report and the apologies.
“We relied on them to get it right the first time, so what’s to say they are not going to mess up a second time,” she said.
Police and the Corrections Department had admitted they had got it wrong, but “only after we have had to push … only after we started rattling chains”.
They had to have been aware when the man was sentenced to 5-and-a-half years’ jail for manslaughter last year what had happened, Mrs Ashton said.
“And nobody made any attempt to come and apologise to us or talk to us until we started pushing for this inquiry.”
It had taken nearly six months to get the draft ministerial report, and another seven months to get it finished, “and these have been the longest seven months of my life.”
She had not yet even been able to grieve for her daughter.
“If I had let myself go down that track, I wouldn’t have had the energy to [pursue the inquiry]. That’s something I need to deal with once this has got some kind of conclusion.”
Mrs Ashton said the thing that really frightened her was that Barclay, a hardened criminal, would be up for parole in March next year.
“He’ll be out, with a new identity, protected forever by the police.”
Ms Casey said Corrections had significantly overhauled its procedures to “make it absolutely clear that just because an offender is on the witness protection programme that does not override all of the requirements of the sentence or order they might be on”.
Barclay’s lawyer, his probation officer, a Department of Corrections official and police national headquarters all knew he was using a different name but no one told the judge in the case.
Ms McDonald found police and probation staff contributed to Barclay being at large at the time of the crash. Her report said staff put too much weight on the covert nature of the witness protection programme and protecting the offender’s identity.