Victim was not at risk, killer said

"I did not think my report would be relied upon for bail purposes, and this was not the purpose of the report.'' Psychiatrist Ian Goodwin

A psychiatrist has said a report he wrote on Christie Marceau’s killer was added to the court file when it should not have been.

Psychiatrist Ian Goodwin told an inquest into the Auckland teen’s death that he was unaware his interview with her soon-to-be killer would be referred to at his bail hearing.

Marceau was killed in her home on November 7, 2011, by Akshay Chand. Prior to her death Chand had been arrested for kidnapping and threatening her with a knife.

He was later bailed by Judge David Mcnaughton and went on to kill Marceau 33 days later.

Goodwin told the court yesterday that a report he wrote while Chand was in custody for the initial attack was later used in his bail application.

The purpose of his assessment was to determine if Chand was fit to stand trial – not if he was fit to be bailed.

‘‘At the time when I assessed Mr Chand, the word bail was not mentioned in the S38 that a health assessor prepare a report,’’ Goodwin said.

‘‘During my interview with Mr Chand he stated he was ‘hoping to get bail’ at his next appearance.

‘‘I did not think my report would be relied upon for bail purposes, and this was not the purpose of the report.

‘‘Had the court or counsel requested a risk assessment with regard to the possibility of bail I would have done so.’’

Goodwin told the court under cross examination, if he was aware his report would be used for bail purposes, he would have focused on whether Chand was at risk of harming others.

Forensic nurse Ellen Wilson met with Chand at the cells of the North Shore District Court the day after he was arrested for the initial attack.

Wilson told the court she felt ‘‘rushed’’ to complete her assessment of Chand as he was about to be called for his first hearing on the kidnapping charge.

The report never made it before the judge because it had not been penned in time.

When asked if she should have made the judge aware of this, Wilson said yes.

Wilson said she asked Chand if he still posed a risk to Christie, which he denied.

‘‘He said no. One thing was very clear, he was very reluctant to speak of anything past in regards to his offending.’’

Chand was remanded in custody after his first appearance, but was later bailed by Judge David Mcnaughton.

Chand was later found not guilty of Marceau’s murder by reason of insanity, and is a patient at the Mason Clinic where he is being treated for his schizophrenia.

‘THEY CAN’T BE STOPPED’

A police officer told the inquest yesterday that bail conditions cannot prevent people from offending.

Detective Superintendent David Lynch said that after Chand was bailed following the initial kidnapping, he was checked on more than 20 times before he killed Marceau.

‘‘I understand Mr Chand was checked a total of 23 times between 6 October, 2011 and 7 November, 2011 and that on each occasion he was complying with his bail conditions,’’ he said.

‘‘Given the assignment of a task to a specific person who monitored Mr Chand’s bail and the frequency of the checks conducted upon him, I am of the opinion that on any reasonable assessment, police monitoring of Mr Chand was robust and comfortably falls within the category of adequate,’’ Lynch said.

Despite this, he said that at times bail conditions could not prevent a person who wanted to offend from doing so.

‘‘If someone is motivated to abscond, quite frankly they can’t be stopped.’’

Lynch said the ‘‘gold standard’’ of bail conditions was electronically monitored bail, also known as EM bail.

However, that had flaws because if there was a breach of bail conditions, a private security company was notified first before police were, he told the court.