Home Invasion and Assault of Elderly Woman in Wheel Chair leads to call for fully transparent Youth Justice System

21st November 2016

The home invasion and assault of a 92 year old wheelchair bound woman in Rotorua has led to a petition being launched calling for a review of the Youth Justice System.

Five people under the age of 17 have been arrested in Rotorua for the assault on the elderly woman which followed a police call out to an address in Elizabeth Street shortly after 2pm on Saturday.

Sensible Sentencing Founder, Garth McVicar said following calls from irate members of the public SST had decided to launch the petition calling for a fully transparent, open and honest youth justice system.

“Our understanding is that three youths had escaped from Rotorua youth prison two days earlier after they had apparently savagely assaulted three prison guards, two of whom were knocked out.”

“These young thugs were then able to wander the streets at will because the severe restrictions of the youth justice system means the Police and Prison personal would have been breaking the law if they had alerted the media or public. Apparently this would have breached the ‘human rights’ of the youth involved.”

“SST understands that this is not the first time offenders have escaped from this prison. Our informants tell us that due to possible infringement of their rights youth prisoners are not allowed to be locked down at night.”

“From our perspective this is an absolute nonsense, the Youth Justice System must be fully transparent, open and honest, if that means tramping on a few so-called ‘human rights’ of offenders then that is just too bad.”

“We realise that what we are calling for is in direct conflict with the current attempt to increase the age of youth justice but we believe that proposal is badly flawed and public safety must always be paramount.”

“Human Rights are for human beings, anyone who commits a home invasion and assaults an elderly, woman in a wheel chair can hardly be classified as a human being – no matter their age.” ENDS

Link to the petition: http://sst.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/SST-Say-No-Petition.pdf

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=11751443

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