MSD error over motels
The Ministry of Social Development housed vulnerable families at two motels used to accommodate child sex offenders, despite making assurances it wouldn’t, a Stuff investigation has found.
When the botch-up was discovered, the Department of Corrections hired security to stand guard at the motels overnight to keep the families safe until alternative lodgings could be arranged.
MSD and Corrections have been under scrutiny since August when Stuff revealed a breakdown in communication led to a notorious child sex offender, who was subject to a 10-year extended supervision order (ESO), being housed in a Palmerston North motel alongside 16 vulnerable families with 41 children.
The 66-year-old, who has interim name suppression, was taken into custody on July 26 amid fears he had abused some of the children in the nearly three months he lived there.
A police investigation found no evidence of criminal offending. Corrections alleges he breached the conditions of his ESO by having unauthorised contact with some of the children.
Corrections national deputy commissioner Andy Milne said that on July 30 the department gave MSD a list of motels it was using to house high-risk offenders. ‘‘We were advised that MSD had instructed their frontline staff, effective immediately, to cease using any motels used by Corrections.’’
However, on the evening of August 14, four days after Stuff revealed details of the Palmerston North incident, officials found vulnerable families living at two of the motels with child sex offenders. ‘‘We carried out visits to both motels and put in place contracted security guards to be present at both properties overnight until the situation was resolved,’’ Milne said.
MSD deputy chief executive Viv Rickard said updated information supplied by Corrections on August 14 alerted MSD to the ‘‘presence of the offenders at the two motels’’.
‘‘We took immediate action with Corrections to ensure the safety of our clients.’’
The sex offender removed in July denies breaching the conditions of his ESO.