Victims’ long fight continues
Wendy Hamer still jumps at her own shadow. But when it happens now, she knows it isn’t the man who brutally attacked her 10 years ago.
Last month, Hamer learned that the mental health patient who beat, stabbed and scalded her in Nelson had died. The news, delivered by Nelson Marlborough Health on October 17, brought an immediate sense of relief for both her and her family, she said.
‘‘It’s really horrible to think that someone has had to pass away for you to feel safe.’’
In the year leading up to his death, Hamer lived in a state of anxiety, after her attacker was moved back to Nelson and granted escorted leave in the community.
Inaction from politicians and Ministry of Health officials to improve victims’ access to information about offenders meant victims of insane offenders were continuing to suffer ongoing harm, advocates said.
Hamer was punched, kicked, doused with boiling water and stabbed with a force that broke the knife into three pieces when she visited the patient, whom she has asked not to be named, while working as a mental health nurse in 2009.
He was found not guilty of attempted murder on account of insanity, and detained as a special patient at Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch.
Hamer was not consulted when her attacker was transferred to Nelson Hospital in October 2018. Rather, health officials sought his permission to inform her of the move, she said.
She was not allowed to know any details of his state of mind, or why he was then granted escorted leave from the psychiatric unit.
The district health board agreed to tell her where and when he was in the community, so she could avoid running into him.
In February, Hamer tried to arrange with the DHB to meet him, but that never happened, she said.
Had he been a convicted criminal, she would have had the right to restorative justice, and to be consulted about bail or relocation. Victims of special patients only have the right to know when the patient is granted unescorted community leave from hospital, their first unescorted overnight leave, and impending discharge from special patient status. Victims must also be told if the patient escapes or dies.
In April, draft legislation proposing to change the wording of the insanity defence was drawn from the ballot in Parliament. National MP Louise Upton said there was a chance her member’s
bill wouldn’t have its first reading before Christmas.
Victims’ advocate Graeme Moyle said it shouldn’t have taken so long to get a bill drafted. ‘‘Things could have changed a lot earlier had it just been adopted by one of the major parties and debated in the House.’’
While in Opposition in 2017, the now Justice Minister Andrew Little said a Labour government would change things, said Moyle, whose brother was killed in 2007 by his flatmate, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity. ‘‘They’ve changed nothing.’’
Hamer’s petition to Parliament, calling for equal rights for victims of insane offenders as for victims of people convicted of crimes, should have carried on ‘‘under its own steam’’, rather than being pushed aside by Upton’s bill, Moyle said.
Private victim advocate Ruth Money said it should be an easy fix. ‘‘If our politicians actually did care, then they could just proactively change this stuff.’’
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said that after the Criminal Justice Summit in August 2018, it became clear that victims’ voices must be ‘‘at the heart’’ of efforts to make the justice system safer for New Zealanders.
"Victims of crime, their advocates, service providers and academics are all reporting multiple gaps for victims in the current criminal justice system.’’
The spokesperson said the report by the Government’s chief victims adviser Dr Kim McGregor was with the Government for consideration, and the ongoing work of the Hapaitia te Oranga Tangata Safe and Effective Justice programme would continue to focus on how those gaps can be addressed and improve the way victims were treated by the justice system.