Kurariki Allegations - Herald needs to consider staff safety
Bailey Kurariki’s alleged sexual violation of two female journalists, raises serious questions about the Heralds
judgement, in sending female staff unsupported to Bailey’s house,” said Kim Workman, Rethinking Crime and Punishment.
“It is unclear whether they made an appointment to see Bailey, or just arrived at the house” said Kim Workman. “But when
you look at the Heralds past persecution of him, sending two female reporters without male escorts, in the expectation
that Bailey would not react negatively in some way, is beyond comprehension. This is a volatile young man with a
seriously sick mother.”
“Bailey Kurariki dislikes the media, and hates the Herald. It was the Herald that surreptitiously photographed him at he
dead brother’s graveside. It was the Herald who photographed him paddling in a child’s paddling pool at his home. And it
was the Herald who hassled him leaving Court to the extent that he spat at them.”
No one who knows Bailey has ever known him to commit an offence of this kind. If the allegation is true, then it would
seem to be a reaction to an extremely stressful situation. Given Bailey’s situation, he could only have seen it as yet
another violation of privacy. The two women were fortunate not to have suffered serious physical injury.”
“The Herald have shown themselves to be uncaring of the safety of their staff, and lacking insight into the way
institutionalised offenders may react to people from a profession which represents everything they hate about the world.
Moreover it raises once again, the question of why we continue to hassle released prisoners, and then pretend to be
amazed when they react negatively.”
ENDS