Anne Tolley MP
National Party Associate Welfare (CYFS) Spokeswoman

28 June 2007

CYFS fails predator ‘time bomb’ & public

National Party Associate Welfare (CYFS) spokeswoman Anne Tolley is praising Cannons Creek residents for speaking out about a CYFS-supervised sexual predator reported to be escaping custody and playing with neighbourhood children.

“This offender is supposed to be under 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, one-on-one supervision. Unless the court-ordered supervision order is not being followed, it baffles me how this troubled teen’s getting out.

“Sadly, this is becoming all too common from CYFS, and the public should not have to put up with threats to their, or their children’s, safety.

“I praise the residents for speaking out, because CYFS needs to take these cases more seriously. The denials and the promises to do better are now wearing thin.”

The new revelation about CYFS supervision comes in the same week that two youths escaped from a Ruatoki-based trust – the second time the trust has hit the headlines in recent years.

At the weekend there were reports that a teen in CYFS custody was left to his own devices while his caregiver was at work, despite the Youth Court considering him at serious risk of re-offending, escaping and violence.

And that report followed last month’s appalling story about a young sexual predator who was able to escape 14 times from 24-hour CYFS care.

“There are chilling similarities between that case and this one.

“Ruth Dyson keeps telling me these sorts of situations are ‘unacceptable’. Why then is she not banging some heads together over her department’s failure to deliver on court-ordered supervision conditions?”

ENDS

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