A complaint to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) resulted in a police apology for a slow Oamaru police response to the crimes of repeat paedophile Leonard James Mulholland.
The apology came when Mulholland was dealt with in the High Court at Dunedin recently. Southern district police have accepted there was ''an unacceptable delay'' in bringing the prosecution to court.
The 72-year-old Palmerston man avoided trial on 95 charges of indecent assaults on boys after a judge found he had dementia and was not fit to stand trial.
Justice David Gendall ruled Mulholland had vascular dementia, and should be detained in a treatment facility.
A Southern district police spokesman said ''various learnings'' had been taken in terms of managing the case load at the Oamaru police station, though police would give no further details.
Police said the apology to the victim came ''as police worked towards resolving an IPCA complaint we received''.
IPCA operations group manager Warren Young said the IPCA did not investigate after a complaint was made in 2012.
Instead the complaint was referred back to police, but the apology ''wasn't as a result of any recommendation we made''.
Mr Young said the organisation had a sort of ''triage process'', as it received 2500 complaints a year and had only 25 staff.
''We obviously only independently investigate a very small proportion of those we receive.
''The ones we think we can leave to the district to deal with, we do.
''We invite people, if they have any concerns, to come back and express dissatisfaction.
There had been no further complaints in this case.
The details of the police response to the case came as the Sensible Sentencing Trust said the victims had been ''denied justice by the very institution designed to protect them''.
Justice Gendall found Mulholland had, on the balance of probabilities, committed the vast majority of the alleged offending.
The appropriate response was to order Mulholland be treated as a patient under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992, by way of a community treatment order.
Sensible Sentencing Trust mental health issues spokesman Graeme Moyle said great courage was required for Mulholland's victims to come forward - ''and for what?''
Mr Moyle said he had no problem with Mulholland being detained in a mental health facility.
''But he should carry a conviction for his heinous offending. His victims have to live with it; so should he.
''This may be the enlightened way in which to treat those with mental illness, but it shows no consideration for the trauma, pain and ongoing repercussions of such offending on the victims.''
