The mother of slain South Auckland pizza delivery man Michael Choy has called for the electronic monitoring of Bailey Junior Kurariki, New Zealand's youngest ever killer.
The mother of slain pizza delivery man Michael Choy says she has lost faith in the justice system and has called for high-risk convicted offenders to be electronically monitored when they are released.
Rita Croskery told reporters in Auckland today changes to the country's parole laws were urgently needed.
Describing her son's death and events leading to Graham Burton's killing while on parole as "fiascos", Mrs Croskery said she wanted the system changed so criminals did not come up for parole until they had served their full sentence.
Once parole started, those deemed high risk could then be monitored, she said.
"We do not want another tragedy such as ours.
"Public safety is paramount."
Mr Choy was bashed to death in South Auckland by a group of youths, including 12-year-old Bailey Junior Kurariki, in September 2001.
Kurariki was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years jail.
He is the country's youngest convicted killer and is due to be released on September 16.
Mrs Croskery and her husband Ken, Michael Choy's step-father, said their lives had been hell since Michael's death.
The couple would not be attending a parole board hearing on Friday for Kurariki. Instead they wanted to focus on changing legislation instead, she said.
"The justice system is failing us.
"We have lost faith in it.
"Our politicians are not listening, we need to change the laws."
Mrs Croskery said the Parole Board and police did the best they could but were only able to work within the legislation which was ultimately flawed.
"Some of these prisoners...you can tell they are nowhere near being ready to be released on parole.
"I would like to see legislation...they can be monitored by some sort of electronic device."
Mrs Croskery said she had made a submission at the last parole board hearing for Kurariki, two months ago in Hastings, that he be electronically monitored.
"And that's why they had to postpone the hearing."
Mrs Croskery said she could not understand why legislation could not be urgently introduced, given Kurariki's release date was not until September.
Politicians brought in legislation "very quickly when they wanted to", she said.
"This is a very important one because we do not want these people released into the community."
Mrs Croskery said she feared for the community's safety when Kurariki was released which was why she wanted an electronic monitoring device on selected prisoners released from prison.
"To prevent them from committing crimes, so it's in his own interest as well."
Parole should not begin until the sentence had been completed, she said.
"It puts the victims through all this trauma, time after time again."
Mrs Croskery said she did not like the direction the country was going in, particular with what she saw as a justice system based on more rights for criminals.
"We have had to fight every step of the way to have any rights at all."
Mr Croskery, in a rare media appearance, choked back tears as he described how his stepson's murder had devastated the family.
"We don't want another family to go through what we've gone through."
Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said a big shift in legislation was not needed to achieve electronic monitoring.
Parole boards had the power to release offenders with conditions already, he said.
"It's only a shift in legislation to say one of those conditions would be electronic monitoring of the offender."
The Croskerys' were pushing for the safety of the greater society, he said.
- NZPA
Topic: NZ's youngest killer up for parole (Read 783 times)