Hon. Tony Ryall MP - National Law and Order spokesman

18 November 2004

Government's chain reaction of incompetence

There should be an urgent independent inquiry into a chain reaction of incompetence which allowed a refugee rapist to reoffend while on parole, says National's Law and Order spokesman, Tony Ryall.

He is commenting on the case of Iraqi refugee Abbas Al Baiiaty, who has been found guilty of abducting and raping a woman while on parole for three sex attacks.

"Numerous government departments have failed in their core responsibilities to protect the women of this country from this reptile," Mr Ryall says.

"First, there was no communication between Corrections, Internal Affairs or Immigration about his status when he was first convicted.

"Then the Probation Service let him move to a hostel but did not tell the manager he was a sex offender on parole. If they had, the police would have realised who he was when they investigated complaints that he was sexually harassing women guests.

"Then they lost track of him, and he resurfaced when he committed his latest offence while living unsupervised in a student hostel.

"On top of all this, here we have the Government still allowing criminals to be released early on parole without proper supervision," Mr Ryall says. "Parole is a failed experiment and this case proves it.

"The frightening thing is that this could happen again. There are no systems in place to ensure such offenders are kicked out of the country on their release from prison.

"An independent inquiry would make recommendations on information sharing and departmental practices, to ensure foreign-born offenders are deported. The inquiry would also highlight the disastrous state of the parole system."

ENDS

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