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Garth McVicar
The impending release of convicted murder accessory
Nichole Field shows how far the public has been duped into a
false sense of security with the New Zealand justice system, a
leading campaigner for change claims.
Field (30), who was convicted for being an accessory to the
murder of Kaitangata teenager Michael Hutchings, was
sentenced to two years' imprisonment last October.
But because she had been in custody since her arrest in
mid-January 2008 and served half of her two-year sentence in
custody, she was eligible for release.
It is understood she could walk free as early as today, but
the Department of Corrections yesterday said it did not
comment on the release date of prisoners or where they were
being held.
The department did confirm Field had no special conditions
imposed on her, apart from the routine requirements all
prisoners serving between one and two years must follow.
That has outraged Mr Hutchings' sister, Sarah (17), who
described it as a devastating blow by the justice system.
Yesterday, she found support from Sensible Sentencing Trust
chairman Garth McVicar, who said this was the kind of "big
con" which had fooled many victims of crime into thinking
those responsible would serve the full sentence imposed by
judges.
"The two-year sentence was never ever going to mean that,
because anybody who gets a two-year sentence is entitled to
be released at half of that," he said.
Any prisoner sentenced to less than two years has their
release handled by the Department of Corrections and not the
Parole Board.
That means that the Hutchings family did not have to be
informed about Field's release.
Nevertheless, Mr McVicar said the public had been conned and
deceived by this piece of legislation.
The trust was continuing to push for a law change which meant
the sentence handed out by a judge was the actual sentence
served by the criminal.
In the case of Field, this would have meant she would not
have been released until this time next year.
Sarah Hutchings contacted Mr McVicar on Monday night to
express her concerns with the system and he said he had great
sympathy for her and the situation in which lawmakers had
placed her.
