Convicted paedo ‘best applicant’ for house near kindy
Craeg Williams gets a phone call “at least once a month” about a child sex offender.
He’s not a police officer, doesn’t work at Oranga Tamariki and isn’t involved in child protection - he runs Tenancy.co.nz, the website that offers property managers background checking services on prospective tenants.
The call is always the same.
Why were they not told the person they placed near a school, kindergarten or other sensitive site is a child sex offender?
Williams got one of those calls in the wake of the Waikato Times reporting on Kelvin Bush, the registered child sex offender jailed for one year and nine months at Tokoroa District Court after earlier pleading guilty to three representative charges of possessing objectionable material.
That was the 138th conviction for Bush, who according to the Department of Internal Affairs is “noted for targeting solo parents to gain access to children”.
“At least once a month we receive a phone call from a property manager who has placed a tenant into a tenancy and then later found out that the tenant is a paedophile,” Williams said.
He said their extensive background checking software does not have access to the Child Sex Offenders Register - and that’s something he wants to see changed.
“This means our background checking software can’t alert the property manager that this person should not be placed near a school,” he said.
“There is a sex offender register in New Zealand, however it can only be accessed by Corrections and the police.
“The Government should allow access to property managers so they can ensure tenants are not placed in inappropriate housing.”
That call was backed by the property manager who placed Bush in his Tokoroa home.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they told the Waikato Times they advertised the property “and he applied”.
“We did all the background checks, he looked like the best applicant,” they said.
“There was nothing that showed up on his background checks.”
Like Williams, the property manager became aware of Bush’s offending via the
Waikato Times.
“We placed him in a property in very close proximity to a playground and a kindy. That rang alarm bells for us.”
While the property manager said they did not support blanket access to the register, like Williams they believed professionals within the sector should be granted access”.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell declined to comment for this article, referring the
Waikato Times to police with his office citing “the operational nature of your query”.
A police spokesperson said: “Police do not have plans to seek amending legislation to open up the register to non-government entities or individuals”.
They also said those in the register are required to report information to police including where they live, work and whether children reside at the same property.
The chief executive of advocacy group Child Matters, Jane Searle, said it was heartening those in the tenancy and property management sector wanted to be proactive in protecting children - but warned wider register access would be no silver bullet.
“Having access to the Sex Offender Register would not offer the protection people assume,” she said.
Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen told the Waikato Times the register can be disclosed to “relevant people such as parents and schools, though this is up to police to assess”.