Victims join claim to compo for ex-prisoner

The first person to be compensated after a court ruled prisoners were being held in custody too long, has a fight on his hands to keep the $50,000 settlement.

Victims of Michael Marino had until last week to stake a claim to the money, and one did. Marino now has two months to respond.

Victims have a chance to claim money the offender would otherwise receive for wrongs the offender suffered while in custody.

A judge of the Victims Special Claims Tribunal decides how the money will be awarded.

The tribunal’s decisions are not public, to protect the victims, but the outcome showing distribution should be publicly notified.

Last month it was revealed that four victims had laid claim to a $25,000 compensation award made to plane hijacker Asha Abdille.

Abdille hijacked a plane flying between Blenheim and Christchurch in February 2008.

She served the full nine-year jail term she received and was released from prison in February 2017. Authorities would not say what her compensation was for but a Parole Board decision had noted she had been involved in a high number of incidents and misconducts in prison.

One of those resulted in her being seriously injured.

Marino had been held in custody 127 days too long.

According to the Supreme Court judgment on his case, he was jailed for 22 months in 2015 on charges of family violence and attempting to pervert the course of justice. A published record of the $50,000 award to Marino said anyone who had been a victim of any offence for which he was convicted, could make a claim against the money. The money was held under the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act.

That covers payments made to offenders if their rights under the Bill of Rights, Human Rights Act, or Privacy Act were breached while in the corrections and criminal justice system.

The money goes into a trust account. Restitution, legal aid, payments of fines and reparation are deducted, and victims can also claim the money.

A Supreme Court judgment in September 2016 changed the way release dates were calculated when charges were laid on different dates and defendants spent time in custody before sentencing.

About 500 prisoners had release dates brought forward as a result of the Supreme Court decision, and perhaps thousands of others who had already been released, might be able to claim compensation.