A man accused of sex offences on the West Coast, and who fled New Zealand in January 2013 after a catalogue of mistakes around his bail arrangements, should not have been granted bail in the first place, the Sensible Sentencing Trust says.
The West Coast case was brought to mind this week with news that convicted murderer and paedophile Phillip Smith had fled New Zealand on a new passport while on a three-day temporary release from Spring Hill Prison, near Huntly.
Last year, a Greymouth District Court trial of a 42-year-old Christchurch man due to stand trial on charges of sexually abusing his daughter over an eight-month period, while working on a Greymouth farm, had to be aborted when police discovered the man got married while on bail, obtained a new passport under his new wife's surname, cut off his electronic bail bracelet and fled the country.
The judge had not properly made the order for the man's passport to be surrendered as part of his bail bond and a court staff member had ticked the wrong box on an electronic bail form. Police then mistakenly believed the man would not be able to obtain a passport to leave the country.
Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar said today that man should never have been granted bail in the first place.
"It's okay for low level crime, knocking over the letterbox or stealing the milk bottle money, but as we start to proceed up the ladder we get more and more serious offenders who get bail," Mr McVicar said.
Rather than being about protecting the victim, the criminal justice system was more about the re-integration and rehabilitation of offenders, he said.
By Ben Aulakh of the Greymouth Star
