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From Brian Brown, father of Natasha Hayden (nee Brown)

My wife Lynette and I became involved with the Sensible Sentencing Trust after our beautiful 24 year old daughter Natasha was murdered on 10th January 2005 by a local scumbag, who was well known to the police because of a long criminal record including rape, assault and other violent crimes.

On the 26th January 2005 this career criminal was charged with Natasha’s murder and was remanded in custody with interim name suppression. Herein started our long and frustrating journey with the New Zealand Justice system.

There were numerous name suppression and bail application hearings, with name suppression finally being lifted on 5th March. This was followed by call-over hearings, pre-deps and deposition hearings. After four unsuccessful applications for bail, his over-zealous local lawyer (paid for by you and I through Legal Aid) was successful in gaining bail for this low-life on the 7th July and the trial date was set for 20th February 2006. Ironically Tarsha was killed the day before my birthday and the trial was set to start on Lynette’s birthday!

He was returned to the local community and whilst on bail killed a lovely two and a half year old girl named Aaliyah on 15th September, and now another family have to go through all the grief and trauma of losing a daughter. Meanwhile the judge and the lawyer who got him released on bail are not held responsible for this little girl’s death. They said they were just doing their job! But what I have trouble comprehending is that whilst four previous judges who were all armed with the same history of his past horrendous criminal track record and saw fit to keep him locked up, somehow in the space of a few days, this same despicable record was deemed of no consequence by another member of this same judicial system, and he was allowed out on bail.

It took several weeks before this scumbag was before the courts once again, first for a depositions hearing for Natasha’s death and then the same rigmarole regarding Aaliyah’s death. In order that the criminal be given a fair trial, he was once again granted name suppression, which will stay in place until the end of Aaliyahs trial, at this stage tentatively set for 7th May 2007, some 600 odd days since she was so viciously beaten.

Because of the second offending and other reasons the courts saw fit to impose, Natasha’s trial was put off until May 2006 where he was now facing the lesser charge of manslaughter. The reason this came about was that whenever he was questioned by the police he gave a different version of what had happened the day Natasha died. There is a requirement in NZ law that all evidence which will be produced in court must be handed over to the defence lawyer. This is called "discovery." And we believe that once all this information was to hand, the accused then saw fit to change his story yet again to suit the evidence the police had produced, hence a lesser charge of manslaughter became the police’s only option for guaranteeing a conviction.

Although the jury were not afforded the benefit of all the information regarding his previous offending, from a very young age, or details of the second murder, they saw through all the lies and bullshit that was presented by the defence lawyer and they found him guilty of the charge in front of them of manslaughter. His lawyer in his wisdom decreed that a 2 or 3 year sentence would be satisfactory, but surprisingly the judge saw fit to impose a less insulting sentence of nine years imprisonment, although he will be eligible for parole in five years.

However because of the continued name suppression (so that the criminal gets a fair trial of course ) the BOP Times reported on the 18th May that "a jury has returned a guilty verdict in the case of a Tauranga man charged with the manslaughter of a young woman from the city. The man, who has name suppression, was found guilty at the High Court at Rotorua after the first week of what was set down as a two week trial. Crown solicitor Greg Hollister Jones told the BOP Times yesterday that the trial came to an end late last week with the seven woman and five man jury finding the defendant guilty. The Bay Times is unable to publish any further information about the case because of extensive suppression orders.”

My wife and I feel totally let down by the New Zealand Justice system. The judges and court staff did not want to know us and regardless of the fact that according to the law, victims and their families are meant to be kept in the loop, we certainly weren’t and we often found out about a hearing date or in the case of the lifting of the name suppression by reading it in the paper or hearing it on the radio news. One court worker said to us when we were trying to get information regarding why we were not told that that particular hearing was not going to take place when we had fronted up to the courthouse "why should you have been told, you are only the victims.”

What the hell did she mean – “you are only the victims.” We didn’t ask to be victims. Up until now we had never had any dealings with the justice system.

At the Depositions Hearing, after hearing the pathologist describe the autopsy findings, the Victim Support worker took us to a quiet little alcove out the back where she made us a cup of tea. The defence lawyer came out of his room and saw us there and barked at her “what are these people doing here?” as if we were the criminals.

Natasha with her father on her wedding day >>

We are left feeling that there is no justice for the victims and their family. Whilst the criminal is well cared for, and his rights are diligently guarded by the system and he has the benefit of one of the top legal brains in our area, a QC no less, what have we had? Certainly no legal advice. At the very first hearing I was told that my lawyer and I had absolutely no standing in this court. We were totally reliant on the police prosecutor to do his job, with no input from us. We were never asked for our opinion and when the charge was changed to manslaughter we weren’t asked how we felt about this, we were just told that’s the way it is to be. As for help in the beginning - sure, we got was a few hours of grief counseling paid for by ACC, and a few sessions with the volunteers from Victim Support, some compassionate support and understanding from the detectives working the case and some helpful advice from Garth McVicar and his team, but nothing really prepared us for the stress and trauma of the trial. Seeing the criminal up there in the dock, no signs of remorse, smiling and playing up to the jury, laughing and joking with the prison guards, knowing all the time that he didn’t even have to appear in the box and say anything to defend himself, satisfied in the knowledge that his lawyer would be able to do it all for him.

Our lives were turned upside down and inside out. Eighteen months down the track we are starting to put our lives back on an even keel, but we know that once the Aaliyah court case starts we will be back at square one until that is over. Our lives will never really be the same.

But what will happen to the accused? When he is found guilty of the second murder, chances are the two sentences will be served together. His two sentences will effectively be halved under New Zealand law. In the meantime he is being housed, fed and clothed by us. He still gets to see his family, his mother can still visit him, and he can watch his children grow up.

DO YOU THINK THAT THIS IS RIGHT? Will you join with us to fight for full and tougher sentences for criminals who commit violent crimes. We believe that those who choose, for whatever reason, to attack, murder and rape should be put away for a long long time to protect the law-abiding general public of New Zealand.

It is my belief that our only avenue for effecting change in the Justice System is with Garth McVicar and the Sensible Sentencing Trust, who, with our support will continue to lobby the government to effect these changes.

Brian and Lynette Brown.

Bay of Plenty article here