Robertson Report Avoids The Root Cause Of Failure

18th May 2016

Justice Patrick Keane's failure to impose Preventive Detention on Tony Robertson in 2006 for child abduction and molestation is the root cause Blessie Gotingco was murdered, says Garth McVicar, founder of the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

The report on the failure of the Corrections system to monitor Robertson completely misses the point. “It defies reality to expect probation officers to manage extremely high risk offenders like Robertson when out in the community. Such offenders are hard enough to manage in the confines of a prison. Expecting probation officers to manage evil men like Robertson is to expect them to manage the unmanageable. Prison is the only answer for an offender of Robertson’s profile” continued McVicar.

Current Minister Simon Bridges, who was the Crown Prosecutor who applied to have preventive detention imposed on Robertson in 2006, presented Justice Keane with a psychological report that said Robertson had a "high risk of further sexual offending following release from prison" if he didn't undertake specialist treatment. His application was declined by Justice Keane who seemed more concerned about Robertson’s age than he was about protecting the community.

"He is an incredibly cold, angry and dangerous individual. I had to ask for extra security to stand between us as I questioned him, which I had not done in any other case. You just had a sense you couldn't predict what he would do," Simon Bridges, former Crown Prosecutor August 2015.

The purpose of preventive detention is to protect the community from those who pose a significant and ongoing risk to the safety of the community and Tony Robertson was exactly the high risk repeat offender the community should have been protected from.

“The fact the Judge decided Robertson was too young to have Preventive Detention imposed, despite his risk profile, shows that Preventive Detention is too hard to impose on high risk offenders. The test needs to be reformed. It must be lowered.” said McVicar.

“The politicians of this country can change the law as and when required but consistently we the public are fed the false sense of security by hearing yet another report has been commissioned. How many reports and how many murders does this country have to endure before someone realises the politicians don’t have a clue what to do because if they did a lot people’s lives would have been saved.”

“The Department of Corrections should not be responsible for the supervision of these high risk offenders, it is patently obvious that legislation does not give them tools required to ensure public safety."
"All high risk offenders should remain in prison until such time as they are deemed to be fit and safe to be released back into the community.”
“Preventive Detention is meant to keep us all safe form the worst offender. The Government must review the current test and prove that the preventable murder of Blessie Gotingco was not in vain.”

ENDS

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