Ten years on
Family struggles over Libby’s murder
It will be 10 years on November 1 since former Kerikeri schoolgirl Liberty Templeman was murdered but the anger is as strong as ever for mother Rebecca Templeman.
Libby, 15, was found dead in a Kerikeri stream on November 1, 2008. Her killer, Hermanus Theodorus Kriel, was sentenced in the High Court at Whanga¯rei in 2010 to 11 years and six months in prison for Libby's murder, and six months for her indecent assault, to be served concurrently.
Kriel will be eligible for parole in 2020 and Rebecca Templeman said this was symbolic of a broken justice system.
“We are already stressing about it and this is what our lives, as with many before us, will be like until such time he is released and put back into society and it's just not right,” she said.
Templeman said she agreed prison could rehabilitate people but she questioned whether the risk should be taken.
“We have to do everything that we can to keep him inside. If he is released, I honestly could not live with myself if he went on and he murdered somebody else's daughter.
“We have to do whatever we can to keep other families from suffering the way that we are and that's the bottom line.”
She said it would cause a lot of worry for her and her family if Kriel was released.
“There is a real fire in us about the consequences we would face if we saw him. Because I wouldn't hesitate to go up to him, I don't know what I do, I don't know what I would say but I would certainly confront him.”
Templeman said she firmly believed Kriel should pay for taking her daughter's life with his own.
“I do believe in life for a life. Seriously, what my daughter is not being able to do, to live her dreams . . . I can't put it into words,” she said.
“There's a difference between an accident and someone who murders. They make choices, they can stop, they choose not to stop.”
She said the tenth anniversary of her daughter's death would be like any other day but the pain would still be there.
“Time, despite what people say, doesn't make it any easier but we just learn to manage our lives differently.”
In a post yesterday on the Sensible Sentencing Trust website, Rebecca expanded on how she felt the justice system has turned against her.
“Having been put through the system once when the little bastard was caught, held, the court heari ng and then sentencing, Andy [Libby's father] and I now face the fact that in three years he is potentially allowed to apply for parole,” she said.
“We are never free to try and rebuild our damaged hearts and minds when there is this abhorrent and archaic system in place.”
Templeman questioned why it was her duty to attend parole board meetings when it would only make her family relive the trauma.
“I am at a loss for words that, as victims also of this trauma, we are annually revictimised and will continue to be for the rest of our lives whilst eventually he will get to swan about getting on with his.”
She criticised New Zealand's immigration policies as Kriel, born in South Africa, was not deported to his home country because he held New Zealand citizenship.
Templeman said Judge Raynor Asher was wrong to take Kriel's age into consideration when he was sentenced.
She felt Kriel needed to pay the full price for what he had done.