Alone, forgotten in cell for 48 hours
With the court and police staff gone, a Wairarapa man locked in a cell knew he had been forgotten.
The only question was how long he would spend abandoned in a windowless holding cell with a toilet, a tap, a concrete slab for a bed and a shoe for a pillow.
The answer was 48 hours, from Saturday morning until the courts opened on Monday.
Police Minister Paula Bennett has called the blunder ‘‘unacceptable’’, while police have launched an internal inquiry and notified the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA).
The man had name suppression and did not want to be identified in order to maintain his dignity, which was the biggest loss in the debacle, his barrister Susie Barnes said yesterday.
He had pleaded guilty in a drink-driving case and was sent to the court’s holding cells while his bail conditions got typed up. That should have taken 15 minutes on a Saturday morning.
Then it became clear there was nobody else in the building.
His home for the coming days was a tiny room. There was no toilet paper, no mattress and no natural light.
‘‘One of the things he said was it was like torture. [There was] no way of knowing how long he would be there or when he would get out,’’ Barnes said.
He spent the hours trying to sleep, trying to stay warm and sometimes ‘‘screaming and yelling’’ in vain when he heard people outside. There was no food but there was a tap for water. The lights glared constantly.
Barnes visited her client on Monday evening. ‘‘He seemed to be extremely vulnerable. He had been deeply affected by what had happened.’’
Barnes would ask the judge to factor this ordeal into sentencing.
When approached at his Carterton home yesterday, the man described how he felt worried and alone, and was angered by the experience. ‘‘I knew they had forgotten about me.’’
Wairarapa area commander Inspector Donna Howard said police had apologised to the man and his family.
‘‘The priority is to determine how this happened and to continue to support the man and his family,’’ she said.
‘‘[After being discovered], he was immediately seen by a doctor and then returned home.’’
According to a source, the court and police officer behind the blunder were ‘‘extremely distraught’’ about the error.
It was a ‘‘complete oversight’’ on their part, the source said.
Human rights barrister Michael Bott said the incident was ‘‘appalling’’.
‘‘Once you’re placed in custody, you’re completely at the mercy of your custodians for your wellbeing, for food and water,’’ he said.
‘‘If this man . . . required medication, something quite serious could have happened. I’m deeply concerned something like this can happen, where the jailers forget they have someone jailed.’’
NZ First MP Ron Mark, who also lives in Carterton, said he had not heard directly about the incident from police but it sounded like a shocking oversight.
‘‘It just sounds bizarre ... it’s clearly not good enough. They are very lucky, given the heat and temperatures of late, and no doubt they’ll have some serious explaining to do.’’
Labour’s courts spokeswoman, Louisa Wall, questioned whether staff in the courts or police were being worked ‘‘to capacity’’, leading to the error.