Prison is not the right place for Turangi teen – Yeah Right!

Henare O’Keefe’s comment that “Prison is not the right place for Turangi rape teen” is startling to say the least says Alan Monk, Police Spokesman for the Sensible Sentencing Trust.

“I have a great deal of respect for Henare and the work that he does with many of the youth of the greater Hastings area.

That said I feel he has on this occasion completely missed the point.

He has made no mention of the victim and her parents. He appears to ignore their right to expect a severe sentence for the injuries and mental anguish this offending heaped upon visitors to our country.

The public outpouring of disgust and anger at this offending is almost unprecedented in New Zealand .

Marino’s solicitor did his best to mitigate the ugliness and shear violence of the offending by suggesting that this offender was severely affected by drugs and alcohol to the point that he didn’t remember committing the offences. That suggestion is hard to believe when the offender flees from the scene discarding his blood covered T Shirt as he goes.

No Henare, this is certainly not a case for a Marae based Justice System for this young man.

Marae based assistance for these people should start at the ‘top’ of the Cliff before the drugs and alcohol, become entrenched in their lives. The failure of his parents to act as reasonable role models has been publicly admitted.

Unless we get back to a situation of placing some accountability on the parents there will unfortunately be more dreadful cases like this”.

ENDS

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