Tony Douglas Robertson, the man convicted today of the rape and murder of Blessie Gotingco, in the dock during his trial
There are a number of serious issues with the Gotingco rape and murder case, not the least of which is the role that was played by the New Zealand police force and the country’s Department of Corrections.
Defense council Wilkinson-Smith, reappointed at the 11th hour has indicated an intention to appeal the courts decision. Of course the defense has every right to appeal to a higher jurisdiction on points of law but we are not sure where Wilkinson-Smith intends heading with it. Nor is it clear just how his successful application for continuing name suppression actually assists the accused, given the admissions he has already made under oath.
LF suspects that the issue of the drugs, addiction, the subsequent state of mind of the accused and the subsequent onus on the Crown with respect to a duty of care will all play a larger than life role in the appeal process.
In fact given the admissions made by the accused LF have been left a little stunned by the New Zealand media’s more than obvious avoidance of what we would have thought were events that could undoubtedly be seen as causal, the completely unavoidable matter of the culpability of both the police and the Department of corrections and the role both played in the circumstances leading up to and thus arguably contributing to or in fact enabling the commission of this horrific crime.
Murder victim Blessie Gotingco
The issue of the defendants state of mind at the time the crime was committed, if it were to be established that he was insane or temporarily psychologically impaired, it would provide room manoeuvre with diminished responsibility comes the possibility for an acquittal or perhaps even the application of the lesser charge of manslaughter, in that the accused had not consciously intended, with premeditation, to murder Mrs Gotingco.
The fact is that in this case both the New Zealand police and the Department of Corrections bear more responsibility for the murder of Blessie Gotingcon than they are obviously now willing to admit.
Detective Senior Sergeant Stan Brown responsible for investigating the Gotingco murder. Perhaps the detective might now like to explain to the New Zealand public how it was that the New Zealand police failed in their duty of care to the Gotingco family?
The New Zealand Courts had already assessed that the accused “poses a very considerable risk” to a large section of the New Zealand public, its children, and yet it would seem that the accused was allowed to be released from prison with a GPS tracking bracelet but without having successfully completed a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation program. Further, that despite knowing of the presence of these serious agravating factors, undoubtedly increasing the likelyhood of reoffending, the police and the other now liable stakeholders had not, at least to what a reasonable person would deem a satisfactory standard, especially given the level of risk present and assessed by another court as extreme, ensured compliance with the accuseds parole conditions. Just how is it that the accused was able to obtain Methanphetamine?
The second aggravating issue relates to the crimes post mortem events. Just how was it that a paroled man who had been declared a public danger, a man with a tracking device shackled to his ankle was not noticed by those doing the GPS satellite tracking having entered a large cemetery, a place known to be frequented by vulnerable people, people who were immediately placed at risk by the accused presence at that location?
Justice Timothy Brewer, presided over an extremely differcult trial one which LF suspects will see a lot more twists and turns before it’s eventually settled by way of a large compensation package for the family of Blessie Gotingco.
It’s all very well labelling the accused “the son of Satin” or “pure evil embodied”, both of which may well be apt titles, but the glaringly obvious reality is that Bessie Gotingco would still be alive today had the New Zealand police and other government departments done what was expected of them, both by High Court judge Justice Edwin Wylie who imposed the conditions upon which the accused was to be released from prison in the first instance and the New Zealand public’s reasonable expectation that those responsible would actually do their jobs in ensuring the conditions were met in every foreseeable circumstance.
This case bears all the hallmarks of a series of similar cases where the paroled, apon their heavily contested release from prison, have almost immediately committed serious crimes of violence resulting in the rape and deaths of innocent New Zealanders, all women and children.
Aaron McDonald pleaded guilty to Ms Farrall’s rape and murder, and to dumping her body in the boot of her car at a Woolston supermarket on March 29 2014 whilst on parole.
The most recent case, which again bears many of the hallmarks of the Gotingco rape and murder, is that of the 2014 rape and murder of young Christchurch woman Amy Farrall.
The Murderer in that case, 38 year old Aaron Rhys McDonald, eventually pleaded guilty to raping and murdering Ms Farrall then dumping her body in the boot of her car at a Woolston supermarket on March 29 2014. Just
McDonald too enjoyed “name suppression”, doing so right up until he decided to enter a guilty plea. Given the fact that McDonald was also on parole supervision when he committed the murder the name suppressions are starting to look like a pattern, arguably born of the authorities desire to muzzle the media until such time as they have managed to construct a strategy to limited their poor performance and consequent common law liability.
The fact we here at LF would suggest that the McDonald case has undoubtedly had a bearing on the way in which both the police and corrections department have acted throughout the Gotingco matter, both during the police investigation, at the time of the arrest, the application for name suppressions and the manner in which the trial has unfolded.
There are other similarities between the two rape and murders, which again both the police and corrections will undoubtedly have been aware of. The first is of course the murderers alleged drug dependency, both having addictions to methamphetamine, drug dependencies that were obviously not treated whilst either were serving prison sentences for their prior violent criminal offending.
Jeremy Lightfoot, National Commissioner of Corrections Services, what happened to his investigation and report?
Now in the case of McDonald the Department of Corrections at the time claimed that it had immediately launched an inquiry, so as to get to the bottom of how and why McDonald had not been monitored. The New Zealand media reported on the circumstances of this case after the horse had bolted in 2014;
Killer’s parole supervision reviewed
6:51 PM Wednesday Apr 16, 2014
Jeremy Lightfoot, National Commissioner of Corrections Services today said initial inquiries showed that McDonald had met his parole conditions up to the point of his last reporting to them on March 18 this year.
“Our probation staff were in regular contact with him and those he was living with,” Mr Lightfoot said.
A comprehensive review of his management is now being undertaken “to ensure his supervision in the community met all our standards and expectations”, he said.
“This comprehensive review is not complete yet, and as we will also be giving advice in regards to sentencing options for this offender it would not be appropriate for us to comment before he is sentenced.”
A hearing at Rimutaka Prison last September was told McDonald was a self-confessed alcohol and methamphetamine user who smoked cannabis daily since he was 15, but his risk to the community over the remaining nine months of his sentence could be “adequately mitigated”.
Source: NZ Herald
So where is the Corrections report promised by Lightfoot? Were is the police report? Was an IPCA complaint ever made? Was any of this material ever made public? Did the New Zealand mainstream media chase this extremely important public interest issue up and report on it? Of course they fucking didn’t, New Zealand’s media was missing in action, asleep at the wheel yet again!
What Commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot fails to grasp is that its not his fucking expectations that matter. What really matters is what the New Zealand public should quite reasonably be able to expect from the New Zealand police, Jeremy Lightfoot and his Department of corrections. That simply being that they do the job that they are paid to do.
In the case of McDonald they clearly failed miserably and an innocent young woman was raped and murdered as a result of that obscene failure. The investigation and report that Jeremy Lightfoot had promised the public would have, one would hope, prevented such a tragedy ever being allowed to occur again.
But as always with New Zealand the horrendous truth is quite different as was the result. Not only was there a publicly available document, absolutely no one, including Lightfoot, was apparently ever held to account for what can now only at best be called systemic failures by both the police and the Department of corrections that lead to the brutal rape and murder Amy Farrall, but that the same people have allowed it to happen yet again, in almost identical circumstances, that Blessie Gotengco was raped and murdered because of the same systemic failures inherent in both Police and the Department of Corrections. Flaws that both failed to address when they had the opportunity just twelve months earlier.
David Walker
Convicted sex offender Lloyd McIntosh on a morning walk through St. Albans park.
This then brings us to another press release today by New Zealand’s department of justice. It seems to us here at team LF that the timing of this Fairfax article has to have been cynical and deliberate, or was it just a bad joke?:
Sex offender Lloyd McIntosh’s strict monitoring extended
BLAIR ENSOR
May 22 2015
A “high risk” sex offender has become the first person in New Zealand to have his strict monitoring programme extended for another decade.
Lloyd Alexander McIntosh’s 10-year extended supervision order, designed to protect the public from potentially dangerous offenders, was set to expire on June 11.
According to a judgement by Justice Rachel Dunningham, the Department of Corrections applied to the High Court at Christchurch this month to have the order renewed.
As part of its application, Corrections also sought an intensive monitoring condition for the first year of the extended supervision order, the judgement says.
The court was provided with a health assessor’s report which said McIntosh had committed sex crimes against vulnerable victims and he remained a “high risk” of further offending.
McIntosh’s counsel filed no opposition to the application.
“In fact, [counsel] notes that Mr McIntosh welcomes the order as a means to provide for continuity for his support and care at the [residential centre where he lives],” the judgement says.
Dunningham approved the application.
McIntosh’s crimes include the rape of a 23-month-old baby and a 6-year-old child.
In 2004, the paedophile, who has to take drugs to control his sex drive, was set to be released to live in a rural Canterbury town, but public outrage forced Corrections to house him in a unit on the grounds of Christchurch Men’s Prison.
Ad Feedback
The same year he became the first man to be the subject of a 10-year extended supervision order.
Corrections was able to apply to have the order extended this month under the Parole (Extended Supervision Orders) Amendment Act passed last year.
The legislation allows Corrections to apply for an extension of an existing order, without the offender committing new eligible offences.
Extended supervision orders are designed to protect the public from high-risk violent and sexual offenders when they have completed their jail terms.
They allow the Parole Board to impose special conditions, such as electronic monitoring.
Source: Fairfax
This article appears to us to have been little more than a public relations stunt by the authorities, including the New Zealand police and the Department of corrections, who are more than aware that the identity of the man accused of raping and murdering Blessie Gotingco is known by many angry Kiwi’s. In fact its this cynical press propaganda that pisses us of the most. Team LF are sickened by the nauseatingl insincere behaviour of New Zealand government officials who know full well that the new laws are unenforceable simply because the country has an incompetent police force and civil service.
The New Zealand media are also failing the Kiwi public – in their fourth estate duties by not exposing the serious rot that has been evident to the casual observer for years, the deceit and outright lies that are peddled by government spin doctors in order to mislead the New Zealand public. In fact it was the above article, falsely attempting to peddle a picture that New Zealander’s and their kids were some how as safe as houses because paedophile Lloyd Alexander McIntosh has had his “high risk monitoring” extended for another ten years. The lie that is beneath the claim that McIntosh is the first to have attracted this type of ongoing supervision, and that somehow everyone can now rest easy because a recently passed law enabling the police and the Department of corrections to monitor these offenders is working well – All of it complete and utter crap;
Can New Zealanders really trust their government to tell the whole truth?
If you are one of the many that have fallen for this government sponsored spin-doctored unadulterated bullshit then you need a quick reality check. Team LF are about to aid in the administration of a reality check by pointing the unwary reader to an almost identical article to that which appeared today. Another Department of Justice bullshit press release that was masterfully reworked into a news item by one of the accomplished hack journos at the New Zealand Herald on March 1st, 2014 just eight weeks before Blessie Gotingco was brutally raped and murdered on May 24 , 2014
Paedophile to be under close watch for 10 years
Saturday Mar 1, 2014
A paedophile who kidnapped and molested a 5-year-old in 2005 has been deemed such a lasting danger that he will be strictly monitored for the next decade.
Tony Douglas Robertson, 26, completed an eight-year prison sentence in December. He’s since breached his release conditions twice and was recalled to prison this week.
He’s also this month had an “extended supervision order” slapped on him for the next decade, meaning he’ll be under strict Corrections monitoring and could be sent back to prison for stepping out of line during that time.
His original sentence related to the abduction of a 5-year-old girl in Tauranga in December 2005, when he was 18.
Despite being found guilty, he continues to deny his offending, which High Court judge Justice Edwin Wylie took into account this month when slapping a 10-year extended supervision order – the maximum period available – on Robertson.
“I am satisfied that Mr Robertson poses a very considerable risk indeed,” he said in his judgment last week.“I consider that it is likely that he will commit an indecency on a child under the age of 12 years, and that he will abduct a child for the purpose of sexual connection.
“The evidence compels the conclusion that (he) is impulsive, and that he is unable to control his anger and aggression. Mr Robertson has a predilection for, and a proclivity towards, sexual offending. He has shown no remorse … Indeed, he continues to deny it.”
Robertson was released on December 11 last year, three days before his statutory release date.
He breached his release conditions twice within five weeks of that release.
He appeared in the North Shore District Court last month charged with the first breach for hosting a visitor overnight at his Parole Board-approved accommodation and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.
He has a scheduled hearing this month for the second breach for visiting a park, “where children were likely to congregate”.
A Corrections spokeswoman said extended supervision orders allowed Corrections to monitor high-risk child sex offenders for up to 10 years after release.
“This means a person subject to an ESO will have to report to their probation officer regularly …”
She said they could also be subject to electronic monitoring, GPS and restrictions on where they can live.
Source: NZ Herald
That’s right, for the New Zealanders who had not been able to work it out for themselves the man who has been convicted of raping and murdering Blessie Gotingco is exactly the same man that the New Zealand police were supposed to have been keeping a court ordered close eye on.
LF kept quite during the process of the trial to ensure that it was fair. We do not understand why continued name suppression assists the accused now following his conviction. In fact we suspect it has more to do with protecting the police and that the accused has been happy to go along with it.
LF now suspects that the application for continued name suppression is more than just a little dodgy, that far from the accused being behind it that culpable crown entities are in fact pulling the strings. We are not going to speculate on what sort of deal may have been done, just that some sort of deal designed to coverup the police failures has been struck.
Christopher Wilkinson-Smith, Just who is it that he’s aiming to protect with his name suppression? In fact just who is it Wilkinson-Smith thinks he’s going to be able to kid?
Afterall who would likely benefit from the ongoing name suppression order? Especially given the normal conditions under which an appeal would be likely to succeed? As far as we can see any appeal would have to be on points of law or based on the argument that an injustice had occurred during the trial.
Whilst the media are so graciously assisting the Gotingco family with being left alone to grieve has anyone inquired as to whether the family has been advised of the course of action that is now available to them in suing the New Zealand Police and the Department of Corrections? In fact did anyone inform the family of Amy Farrall of their legal rights and the options open to them to sue the New Zealand police and the department of corrections for either civil tort damages or charges of criminal negligence? Some how we doubt it.
That then brings us to another public interest story that was recently published on Fairfax’s Stuffed.co.nz. It seems to us that this group of do good lawyers might like to represent both the Gotingco and Farrall families pro bono, assisting them both with an action against the New Zealand government, in particular the police and the Department of Corrections, seeking damages for their gross negligence in the matter of two seriously dangerous and violent criminals who took the lives of the two families loved ones;
Panel to investigate suspected miscarriages of justice
May 19 2015
Michael October’s murder and rape conviction could be the first case challenged by a high-powered team formed to investigate suspected miscarriages of justice in New Zealand.
Charitable trust The New Zealand Public Interest Project (NZPIP) will launch on June 1. Its panel will investigate potential injustices.
The conviction of Michael October, who spent 11 years in jail for the 1994 rape and murder of 22-year-old Christchurch woman Anne-Maree Ellens, is among four high-profile criminal cases in its sights. Civil proceedings of public interest, including test cases and class action, could be considered.
The voluntary board consists of sociologist and University of Canterbury (UC) lecturer Jarrod Gilbert, UC dean of law Chris Gallavin, private investigator Tim McKinnel, lawyers Nigel Hampton QC and and Kerry Cook, forensic scientist Anna Sandiford, legal expert Duncan Webb, and founder of investigation firm Zavest Glynn Rigby.
Gilbert said countries including England and Scotland had independent criminal cases review commissions that pursued potential miscarriages. While these organisations were created and funded by Acts of Parliament, successive New Zealand governments refused to establish a similar body.
“We see this as an important absence in our country’s legal system, and so we decided to create one ourselves,” he said.
The project was developed from the Teina Pora and October cases, where “fundamental concerns around the justice system” had been raised.
Prior to the creation of NZPIP, panel members have been privately involved in the Pora, October, Mark Lundy and David Bain cases.
October has consistently denied his involvement in the crime, despite initially offering a confession to police. There was no DNA evidence linking him to the scene. In 1996, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by October against his convictions.
“I don’t think we should be concerned by mistakes within the justice system but we should be deeply concerned if we are not prepared to make them right,” Gilbert said.
Ad Feedback
The initiative was a partnership with UC, and would act as a charitable trust, calling on the help of outside experts, he said.
Cases would be looked at by UC law school students, who would operate under the supervision of the board, working mostly on “pro bono” basis and earning course credit.
In some cases, the board could apply for legal aid but the organisation would receive no direct funding.
Gallavin said it would be “fairly small with a limited capacity” but in some instances the cases would end up in the Court of Appeal, Privy Council or up for judicial review.
He has been among a chorus of experts calling for a criminal cases reviews commission, which he said could save taxpayer dollars and uphold the reputation of the legal system.
Former Justice Minister Judith Collins last year rejected calls for a review panel, saying the criminal justice system has “robust safeguards against miscarriages of justice through the appeals process and the royal prerogative of mercy”.
Gilbert said people needed a vehicle to reach that point, while many did not have the ability or financial means to pursue miscarriages.
People who felt they have fallen victim to a miscarriage of justice would have forms available to them to fill out and make a referral to the body.
From there, the board would decide on the merit of a case and if it is in the public interest, then decide if it has “got legs”, and finally if they had the capacity to carry out the investigation.
Source: Fairfax
Note: LF will have more on the above Canterbury University initiative in an upcoming post.
No Comments
His mother rented the apartment for him.
I once heard from a group of educated people about him that his financial resources are supplied from his parents who lives in Australia but does not want to have anything to do with him. ( I guess because of shame) That’s hearsay I heard, but who knows.
Please stop referring to lawyers for the defense as “do good lawyers”. They are called, by people who spent years catching and convicting pedophles, “Dark Side Lawyers”. This alludes to the fact that they have joined the “dark side” and will defend anyone for MONEY. Fortunately, two of these disgusting people died recently and are no doubt trying to convince the devil that they didn’t mean to be so naughty for all the money they got!! Lawyers are well aware of what the title “Dark Side” means and are terrified to be labelled such. It sticks forever, and they are despised by their ilk.
I attended a session of the Blessie Gotingco trial and so straight away knew his name – obviously – it is said freely there. His demeanour was ghastly, a large part of the time his head was down on the table in front of him as though he was in denial, bored. Popped up to pass the odd note to the Friend of the Court Lawyer who had been appointed for him, after he sacked him. Two more oddities come to mind with this horrific case 1/ Why was he released in Dec 2013 from his earlier despicable crime when he had expressed no remorse ? I thought that was a prerequisite. 2/ From other cases I understood that being under the influence of drugs/alcohol can never be offered as an excuse for any crime whatsoever. After reading this LF piece the conclusion I reach is that his Defence team could be planning on going down the evil route of offering this “clutching at straws” excuse that his own self-inflicted criminal habits impaired his thinking and so therefore I dread to even contemplate the obvious outcome of that line of thought. It would be the most horrible travesty of Justice. Speaking of which, I am almost 100% sure I have “cracked the case” of who his wealthy benefactor is – who most likely paid for his flashy apartment and flashy silver BMW. I suspect it is “the old boys network” in action. I knew the name rang a bell and suddenly one day when I wasn’t even thinking about the case it came to mind. If this suspicion is correct, it would the most horrendous thing that this titled person could even dream about aiding – financially or otherwise, ie with influence – this hideous thug/rapist/killer. Saw him from closeby and he is very tall and powerfully built. Even after being dried out now from any drugs he still managed to get out-of-control in the Courtroom. The burly Security Guards could not keep him under control and the Judge shouted ” Take him down – to the cells”. It was an extremely ugly session – I believe the only place him is nothing less than Preventive Detention.
Colleen in reply to your first question about why he was released without showing any signs of remorse. Unless prisoners have been sentenced to life or preventive detention they have a final release date. By law they have to be released by then, or Corrections will be charged with, I can’t remember the exact terminology, but basically holding the person illegally against their will. Corrections has been charged with this in the past when they’re got their calculations wrong & hold someone for an extra day or two. That is why this man was released ‘3 days before his final release date’ as said in this article. That is a fairly standard approach by Correction to avoid going a day or so over. Remorse, nor any crimogenic or addictions programmes are required for release at all. The final release date is the final release date. That is why preventative detention can be a good option if appropriate. Hope this helps with your question.
I appreciate the work you do with this site, but “son of Satin”? This sort of silly mistake does nothing for your credibility. Learn to spell or at least use a spell checker.
Oh dear not another spelling NAZI, do us all a favour, post comments that actually contribute something, or that are at least on topic or otherwise fuck off!
son of satin gets through my spell check just fine 🙂 why so bitter? did they strike a nerve? does your name appear on this page? 😀
Twenty days have been and gone, and not a peep from the MSM regarding his identity and prior convictions. So he obviously still has name suppression. Disgusting……
It would seem that, as at today, 24th June 2015, this is the latest on the continued name suppression applications: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/69668912/blessie-gotingco-killer-wants-name-suppressed-until-appeal-decided
What a complete fucking farce. Playing the system once again. Can’t really blame him though, it must be pretty boring spending all day in custody, so it’s hardly surprising he keeps coming up with new ways to get day trips to court, and the great thing for him is that he doesn’t have to pay a cent. Which raises the question of who is actually paying his lawyers bill. And who was paying for his apartment? And his BMW…. Any thoughts on that LF???
Another update; These poor bastards are on a steep learning curve when it comes to the NZ police and the country’s Justice system – “As a family we look forward to open and transparent justice” – Gotingco Family. See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11476559
Is it just me, or does this low-life look like a Neanderthal ?
i thought he looked like a rapist peado killer – but thats just me
I don’t know how a mother could love that
Gg
Sean Plunket conducted an interview with Corrections Association president Bevan Hanlon who was scathing about this monitoring process in general (obviously unable to be specific but this incident was the spur for the interview – see photo used at link). He claims that Corrections simply does not have the resources to carry out the required monitoring. Monitoring is a “fiscal” measure to keep the prison population down apparently.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Electronic-monitoring-of-criminals—how-does-it-work/tabid/506/articleID/80122/Default.aspx
Thanks for that Lindsay, well worth listening to that radiolive interview. Yet another money saving effort by the New Zealand Government that simply didn’t work. Yet more evidence supporting the need for a generous lawyer to offer their services pro bono in suing the New Zealand Government, even if just to make the point that enough is enough.
“I think that the general public have been duped” – Bevan Hanlon (New Zealand Corrections Association)
Another piece of information I found on the NZ Courts website….
http://www.laudafinem.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/sc-90-2008-tony-robertson-v-thequeen-leave-judgment.pdf
An appeal against an appeal court decision, where in the original case, he was caught ‘red handed’, molesting a poor innocent child, whose only fault was walking to school without somebody bigger than Mr Robertson. And if it wasn’t for a very on to it cop following a ‘gut feeling’, that child would have been murdered, after suffering several gross indecencies beforehand. Tony Robertson is a career criminal, a convicted paedophile, and now a convicted murderer and rapist, and should never see the outside of a prison cell ever again. He is very familiar with the system, and is still playing it, at the expense of all the rest of us who go to work every day, and pay our taxes in the hope that the system will keep us and our children safe from sick individuals like Mr Robertson As hard as LF are on the police at times, I think LF would agree that due credit should be given to the cop who rescued Mr Robertsons’ original victim. And also several other good cops who protested very publicly about him being released. It is not the polices’ job to monitor released offenders, their job is to act on information provided to them by corrections about individuals who share the same inclinations as Mr Robertson. In my opinion, there are two parties who should be held to account for this despicable crime. The first is Justice Keane, who gave a relatively short, and finite sentence to someone who all but raped an innocent child. The second is Corrections, or the contractor who was supposed to be monitoring Mr Robertson. Please stop bashing the police for this LF, they can only act on the information they are given, and they have to act within the law. I don’t think you could find any cop (or any other law abiding citizen) in this country who wouldn’t enjoy the chance (without consequences of course) to beat the living piss out of this pathetic excuse for a human being……
Sorry Robby but we here at LF stand by our position. Sure there may well be good cops out there, but is that not what they are paid to be? Police officers are civil servants, they are not conscripts or soldiers who gave their lives in defense of their country. The ideology that a police officer is somehow more deserving of accolades than lets say a WINZ or Customs employee is in itself an unhealthy proposition.
We would tend to concur more with the analogy that when really good cops do in fact exist then there is no room for corrupt or incompetent cops. It’s indeed commendable that a police officer actually did his job for once and was able to avert an obvious tragedy, clearly the officer in question, if indeed the events were as remarkable as you make them sound and his or her performance sustained over a number of cases, would be deserving of promotion, not adulation or a purple heart.
Like it or not the New Zealand police force is inherently corrupt, a key indicator of that fact is the non existence of internal whistleblowers. Any that have come forward over the years have either been framed themselves or driven out of the police force. In fact the police almost suceeded in doing exactly that in the recent case of MP Mike Sabin’s Northland police mate the corrupt Sergeant Michael Blowers – http://laudafinem.com/2014/12/04/a-line-in-the-sand-has-been-drawn-a-royal-commission-into-police-corruption-urgent/
Cops who have blown the whistle, even when they have long retired have more often than not been hunted down threatened and harrassed, names such as Chief Inspector Whiro Ratahi (Dickie Maxwell kidnapping), Detective Sergeant Tom Lewis (copouts and coverups ISBN-10: 1869586433) and Detective Nick Preece (http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/11840/former-cop-blows-lid-nz-government-bugging-allegations-ministers-implicated/) are but three men who have all tried to do the right thing by the New Zealand public and often the victims of police corruption over the years, only to become victims themselves – all of which is standard operational bullshit when it comes to how the New Zealand police and their commanding officers operate by default.
When we here at LF are able to see New Zealand media headlines that read like Australian headlines, http://www.smh.com.au/national/more-bad-cops-being-dobbed-in-by-their-own-20101020-16ud4.html then we might just start looking at pulling back on our criticism. In fact the day the new Zealand Governmemnt announces a royal commission into police corruption we will be the first to say good work.
So we are not quite sure what your objective actually was Robby, but if it was to convince team LF that the New Zealand police force was anything other than the systemically corrupt institution we portray them as, using facts, then you have sadly wasted your time. Unfortunately Robby the random commendable efforts of a handful of individual cops has little bearing on our objective, in fact they are quite irrelevant to our mission, there are plenty of others out there pushing the PR barrow for police, with Greg O’Connor and the police association doing a fantastic job themselves……not at all our job mate!!
That wasn’t my objective at all, I think that defending the indefencible is best left up to the usual suspects named in your response above. Judging by their previous efforts, they need as much practice at it as they can get…. I am simply voicing my own personal opinion, which is that in this particular case, the police have done nothing wrong. As the editor of this site said in an earlier post, “LF’s position in this case is however relatively simple – that in the administration of justice itself in this case there has as yet been no clear corruption. That because there has been no obvious corruption in the police investigation, arrest and trial, to date, then justice should be allowed to take its course.”. The police didn’t let set a convicted paedophile loose on the public, after he breached his parole conditions for the second time, by being in a public park, did they? I haven’t read the transcript of that hearing, but my guess is that the police would have opposed bail….
This is from the first trial… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=10942169
Once all this suppression BS is done with, it would be great if a serious investigative journalist (if there are any left in NZ) could submit an OIA request, asking how much this oxygen thief has cost the taxpayer in total. First trial, then two appeals against his first conviction, where he was caught in the act, then a second trial, where he was found guilty, and another appeal pending. As well as seven years of free board, and several more in future….
Where did his money come from? It’s bad enough this dropkick didn’t get preventive detention for the last offence, but it also looks like the taxpayer was picking up the tab for his apartment and BMW. I would add WINZ to the list of government departments that need a swift kick up the slats.
I’m sick of this shit, another person gets raped and murdered and nobody in the ministries responsible will be held accountable for it.
And a relative of RSA killer William Bell. Good gene pool!
how do you know that?
Does it really matter Dwight? Or are you a journo looking for an angle?
just interested!
“Former Justice Minister Judith Collins last year rejected calls for a review panel, saying the criminal justice system has “robust safeguards against miscarriages of justice through the appeals process and the royal prerogative of mercy”.
This from the minister who fobbed off a case where a Nelson judge committed overt fraud in a preliminary hearing.
How did a guy, just out of prison, unemployed and under strict monitoring, manage to acquire a late model BMW with “white leather seats”?
As well renting a flash apartment, and buying plenty of Meth…. And all of it within six months of his original release date…… He was unemployed when he was imprisoned for his earlier offences. So where was he getting his money from???
Yes well all very interesting
Who actually sits on the Independent Police Conduct Authority? Is it really independent? Why do only a handful of complaints ever get upheld each year…? If it were effective we’d see less corruption amongst Police wouldn’t we, but the trend seems to be more?
no different to the Law Society, and the REAA – all run and administered by themselves to ass cover for each other. Once in a while a particularly bad egg will be broken, as for the rest….. under the carpet it goes. The NZ system is built to protect those who break that law. We pander to their needs continually making excuses along the way. Its much easier than addressing the systematic failures within our system. The release of this rapist killer is a perfect example!
The scary bit.
What happens the next time one of these closely [un]supervised criminals does the same thing. Will our Police end the investigations on that person and conclude there was not enough evidence [because they stopped looking for it] to lay charges? Thus saving their own arses and that of Corrections, and say stuff the family of the victim and us.
I wouldn’t say that was impossible, given the Police policy of deceit and deception when they deem it necessary to save themselves.
One of the few positive’s that became public knowledge during this trial, (other than this filthy lowlife scum being found guilty on all charges), was information that the accused’s ‘girlfriend’ had recently suffered a miscarriage.
Maybe there is a god…….
The thought of him being a father, had the baby been born, is a frightening prospect.
An even more frightening prospect, is the thought of a Sociopath like this fathering offspring to walk among us spreading the seed
the potential mother must be thrilled at her choices in life given she slept with this monster.
http://www.laudafinem.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/judgement-re-tony-douglas-robertson-case.pdf
Thanks Robby, you’ll note that we have removed your external url link for security reasons and replaced it with an LF url to the same document, that being Justice Wylies judgement in the matter of Robertsons parole conditions.
No worries LF, I don’t imagine the original link will be available for much longer anyway…….