21 OCTOBER 2015

Government Not Prepared to Act Against Paedophiles

The Prime Minister claims to have the interests of victims at heart, while defending name suppression of paedophiles, says New Zealand First.

“He is not prepared to support a law change that would give victims the right to request removal of name suppression of an attacker,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Two sexual assault victims, Anne-Marie Forsyth and Karen Beaumont, have battled for years in court, and have had their name suppression orders lifted in an attempt to expose their attacker, but Mr Key offers them no support.

“They have lived with the horror of the attacks when they were children for decades and believe the attacker should be named, saying he could be anyone’s neighbour and must be identified for the sake of the community. There’s nothing to stop the convicted paedophile from becoming a children’s sports coach.

“New Zealand First’s Criminal Procedure (Removing Paedophile Name Suppression) Amendment Bill is awaiting selection from the members’ ballot.

“We challenged Mr Key to pull it from the ballot today and introduce it into Parliament. He refused.

“There is no substance to his statement in Parliament that he sees victims’ rights as more important than the rights of attackers,” says Mr Peters.

Criminal Procedure (Removing Paedophile Name Suppression) Amendment Bill

ENDS

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