The Post

Family seek expenses for fleeing

- JARED NICOLL

A Lower Hutt family wants the Government to reimburse them for rent money spent after fleeing a paedophile who was relocated next door.

Every day, Mike Bell estimates that he is out of pocket another $73.51 for the Maungaraki house he, his wife, their 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son left at the start of August after learning a high-risk, GPS-monitored offender had been placed next door.

Bell went on to play a key role in pressuring the Correction­s Department to shift the sex offender to the grounds of Christchur­ch Men’s Prison.

But while his family have since re-settled into a rented home in Newlands some 12km away, the lease on their old house will continue until the end of the year, unless someone else takes it on.

Bell wrote to Correction­s chief executive Ray Smith last week asking the agency to cover the cost of keeping his family safe. ‘‘Every child deserves a safe upbringing away from this kind of repeat offenders ... who admit to themselves they can’t control their urges.’’

So far, Bell has lost $2500 and is not legally entitled to reimbursem­ent. He previously expressed the ‘‘shock and disgust’’ he felt, plus the fear ‘‘for my family’s welfare’’.

Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard wrote to Smith, saying he was ‘‘totally supportive of reimbursem­ent for out-of-pocket costs being made to the Bell family’’.

‘‘I think a small ex-gratia payment to recognise the stress and disruption to their lives would be appropriat­e. It would also do Correction­s’ image no harm if they made a contributi­on to the local school and community associatio­n for similar reasons.’’

A Correction­s spokespers­on said they had nothing further to add to an earlier response announcing the offender would eventually be shifted back to the Wellington region once a suitable address was found.

‘‘If we can learn from the experience in Maungaraki ways in which we can do this better for concerned communitie­s, we are absolutely open to doing so.

‘‘Correction­s is also bringing in extra resources to assist with the placement of offenders.’’

Top brass last met with Bell, Mallard, list MP Chris Bishop, and close neighbours on August 25 to

‘‘I think a small exgratia payment ... would be appropriat­e. Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard

discuss how Correction­s work better in future.

Bell told the department how it had failed to adequately notify him and other neighbours who had children - made worse by the fact their houses shared a driveway.

The offender has previously been jailed three times for might indecently assaulting young girls the last in 1999 when he was imprisoned until 2006.

‘‘Although we’re pleased he’s gone from Maungaraki, it’s not about moving him to another neighbourh­ood. It’s only really part of the story ... the word Maungaraki will slide away from it over time.’’

A petition by the Sensible Sentencing Trust has been circulatin­g within the community, seeking a law that any offender subjected to an extended supervisio­n order must live within prison grounds unless directed by a court. It has 567 signatorie­s so far.

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