Minister steps in after killer’s release
Revamp ordered after victims not told of release
The Government has stepped in and made immediate changes to victim notification processes after revelations a man shopping at his local supermarket ran into the mental health patient who stabbed him 10 years ago, unaware he had been released.
And the partner of another man killed by the same patient has spoken of her anger after she learned of his release in the media.
She had registered as a victim and should have been notified — but a “glitch” in the Ministry of Health’s notification system meant she was never told.
Yesterday Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga said he had asked the ministry’s director and chief adviser of mental health, Dr John Crawshaw, to “review procedures as a matter of urgency”.
His call followed a Weekend Herald story about Martin Lyall, deemed unfit to stand trial and remanded to a forensic psychiatric unit after he killed Kevan Newman and attempted to murder Bob Norcross in Henderson in 2005.
Mr Norcross saw Lyall at a West Auckland supermarket this month.
“We had to make changes quickly,” Mr Lotu-Iiga said.
“I really feel for these victims
who found out in this way. We’ll do the best we can to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We will be having a cross-agency meeting with the ministry, police and Corrections to look at how to tighten up the current process. We certainly won’t rule out legislative changes if that is what’s required.”
Dr Crawshaw apologised publicly to the victims and announced changes to the notification process.
“The victims had their trust in us to let them know and they weren’t notified — that is of great concern to me. I can really understand that they are distressed,” he told the Herald.
“This is something that I . . . feel really disturbed by. I place high value on making sure victims are looked after. Unfortunately we had this glitch but we will learn from it and make sure it does not happen again.”
Lyall was approved for unescorted leave from the Mason Clinic in 2013. He is still an in-patient, but now lives in Henderson six days a week.
None of Mr Newman’s family or Mr Norcross were aware he was essentially living back in the community.
The Waitemata District Health Board sent a letter to Mr Newman’s son in 2013 but it never reached him as police had provided the wrong address.
The Herald can now reveal Mr Newman’s partner when he died, Vicky Williams, only learned of Lyall’s release on Saturday.
“It was a bit of a shock. My husband heard it first on the news and I walked in and he said, ‘ you better sit down’ and he told me. I went blank. It didn’t quite register to start with. I was thinking, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me that he’s out’,” she said yesterday. “As soon as I saw he was released and had been for two years I realised I could have run into him at any time. I still go to Henderson, I have family there.”
After Mr Newman died Ms Williams asked to be placed on the victim notification register. She later moved but provided her new address.
“We still own the house where I lived at the time and we get all the mail redirected so I would have got it anyway. I’ve had the same phone number the whole time . . . Somebody should have called me,” she said.
“I’m angry that I didn’t know about it . . . I needed to know. It was quite upsetting to suddenly find out that this guy was walking around the streets and I didn’t know about it.
“I didn’t have time to prepare or think about it. All of a sudden he’s just there.”
Mr Crawshaw spoke to Ms Williams yesterday and apologised. A formal apology letter would follow and he was also in the process of contacting Mr Newman’s son in Wellington and daughter in Australia. Changes were put in place yesterday to improve the notification system.
“As of today we require all victim co-ordinators to use both phone and letter correspondence. That way, if one fails, the other should occur,” he said.
He explained why Mr Newman’s family were not notified.
“From what I can see in our records there was either a glitch in data entry or a glitch in data reconciliation that was perpetuated through the system. It’s hard to know whether it was the system or the operator.
“What we are trying to do now is ensure there are no more glitches. That’s my number one concern.”
He said a “complete and comprehensive reconciliation” of victim records was being undertaken.
“We have changed our processes over time and we did undertake what we thought was a good reconciliation a year or so back — but clearly we missed things.
“What we’re doing now is going back through victim files and following along the chain to make sure there are no further glitches. We don’t want anyone else caught in this situation.”