Grieving family: Justice denied
The statute of limitations will soon expire for a brutal, unprovoked and still unpunished killing. Shane Cowlishaw reports.
This December will mark 11 years and one month since the murder of Aucklander Kevan Newman.
It will also mark the day that his killer can no longer be held accountable for the crime.
Newman, a 65-year-old father and bus depot worker, was stabbed in the stomach during a random daylight attack in Henderson in 2005. He died en route to hospital.
Warnings about his attacker Martin Lyall, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had been raised with the Waitemata District Health Board days earlier.
During his rampage Lyall also stabbed fishing shop owner Bob Norcross and assaulted a police officer before being shot during an armed standoff.
But Lyall was declared unfit to plead to the crime, and was detained at the Mason Clinic as a special patient – meaning he could only be released by the national director of mental health.
Kevan’s son Dean Newman is scathing of the way the DHB has handled the case.
‘‘You can’t have any confidence in them . . . It’s frustrating, it’s so frustrating’’ he said.
The Newmans and other victims were only alerted to his release when Norcross ran into him at the supermarket.
December will mark the decade since Lyall was declared a special patient. The statute of limitations means at that point Lyall will no longer have to stand trial for the crime – even if deemed well enough to do so.
Under the current law, Lyall’s fitness to stand trial is assessed every six months by his clinician, with the result relayed to the Attorney General. His final assessment will also be conducted by the same clinician.
Instead, the Newman family want assessments from professionals who haven’t been involved in Lyall’s care, and an independent judge to have the final say.
Dean Newman said it seemed everything in the mental health system was hidden behind a screen of patient privacy.
In his findings released in 2008, Coroner Murray Jamieson recommended the DHB complete a review of its policies for managing patients in the community and provide the findings to the Newman family.
Dean Newman said they never received the review, and Waitemata DHB said it was unable to confirm if the family had received the report.
It was also unable to say what actions were taken as a result of the Coroner’s recommendations because of ‘‘the passing of time’’.
Clinical director Dr Jeremy Skipworth said the fact victims had not been notified about Lyall’s assessments meant there had been no change to his status.
If Lyall remained unfit to stand trial after the statutory period expired, his care would then be managed by a compulsory treatment order.