Gotingco family seek inquiry
Blessie Gotingco’s family say there should be a public inquiry into how the Auckland mother was killed by an ex-offender released on strict conditions.
Tony Douglas Robertson, 28, was unmasked as Gotingco’s killer after name suppression finally lapsed yesterday.
When he ran down Gotingco with his car, then raped and murdered her in May last year, Robertson was subject to 13 strict release conditions.
He had been released from prison after serving eight years for the indecent assault of a fiveyear-old child and was subject to GPS monitoring.
In a statement, Gotingco’s family said Robertson was supposed to have been monitored by the Corrections Department. ‘‘Clearly this was not the case and given his evil history which can now be disclosed, the family is calling for an open public inquiry into the socalled management of all of these high risk offenders – Blessie’s death must not be in vain.’’
The family said this would be the first and last time they would speak Robertson’s name. They described him as a coward who continued to hide behind unsound name suppression laws.
Corrections regional commissioner Jeanette Burns said the department passed its sincere condolences on to Gotingco’s family and friends. A review of the case found Robertson had been managed in an ‘‘appropriate and highly responsive manner’’.
Robertson had reported to Community Probation 38 times, some of which had been unscheduled. ‘‘All incidents of noncompliance with his release conditions were swiftly followed up and resulted in two periods where he was held in custody,’’ she said.
A law passed in December 2014 – after Robertson’s offending – introduced public protection orders which, if granted, allowed a criminal to be kept in prison beyond the end of their sentence if they posed an imminent risk of serious reoffending.
‘‘It’s hard to know whether Robertson would have reached that threshold as the law has not yet been tested,’’ Burns said.
‘‘This is the first time an offender subject to GPS in New Zealand has committed such a heinous crime, and for some this will raise the question about whether the system is effective.’’
After Robertson’s prior offences, psychologist reports labelled him an ongoing threat to society. He was profiled as a violent offender with poor impulse control and ‘‘deviant sexual preferences’’.
He had got out of prison just five months before he attacked Gotingco, where he had served his full eight-year sentence for a 2005 assault on a five year-old girl in Tauranga. He was sentenced cumulatively for abduction and committing three indecencies on the girl, attempted kidnap of two other children and robbing a child.
When he was sentenced for those crimes, the judge could have locked him up indefinitely and he would not have been able to attack Gotingco. But the sentencing judge opted to show mercy.
‘‘You are not simply to be assumed to be a lost cause at the age of 19,’’ Justice Patrick Keane told him at that time.
But Robertson did not turn his life around. He completed no courses of treatment and was repeatedly denied parole because of his lack of reform, court papers state.