Mark Ron: General Debate 
Mark Ron: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19053] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 John Albert Thomas Clarke committed crimes in December 1996. In 1997 he was charged with violently attacking a woman in her home. He had tried to rape her he had threatened to kill her and he had beaten her with his fists and then with a tennis racquet. He was committed for trial and given bail. On 20 September 1997 he was charged with rape kidnap unlawful sexual connection threatening to kill and injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to a 15-year-old girl. He had strangled her until she nearly passed out threatened to drive her off the top of a cliff in Lyttelton in the back of his car and told her he would bash her to death with a crowbar from his boot. And he admitted all those charges. He had done all that while he was on bail. On 25 September 1997 although he was sentenced to a total of—I had it wrong; I said he was sentenced to what was essentially 38 years’ jail but a quick tally shows that it was 44 years. Let me make it clear. Clarke received 3 years’ imprisonment for threatening to kill 3 years for indecent assault and 2 years for injuring with intent. He was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment for abduction 3 years for threatening to kill 5 years for injuring with intent again and 11 years each for each of the sexual violation charges but with all terms to be served concurrently. Clearly the judge knew how dangerous this man was. 
But then we come to December 2004 when although Clarke had served only 7 years in prison under this Government and its policies we saw him released on home detention to Cardijn House in Addington Christchurch. The staff at Cardijn House a group of social support workers led by a 76-year-old supervisor were given no details whatsoever of Clarke’s past offending. They have subsequently said that had they known about it they would have refused to have him there. On 26 January the Parole Board heard Clarke’s parole application. Just 8 weeks after being put on home detention he was paroled. On 18 February 2005 a complaint was made to the Sydenham police against Clarke alleging that he had duped two of the female staff in the Cardijn House facility into having sexual relationships with him that he had tried to do the same with a third woman who had gone to Cardijn House to seek assistance from the support staff and that he had gone on to threaten to kill and to take revenge on all three of those women. He subsequently threatened the children of one of the women who had rejected his advances. 
John Albert Thomas Clarke is a high-risk sexual offender. He shows no remorse. He is proud of his past; he boasts of it. On being placed in home detention he immediately engaged in acts of conning innocent women into relationships and then when he did not get his way he threatened to kill and rape them all and he threatened children. Clarke continues to associate with known paedophiles. Clark was released by the Parole Board after serving only 7 years of his sentence. The report that the Parole Board obviously received from the Department of Corrections was inaccurate at best and a whitewash or absolutely pure fiction at worst. Those responsible for that report—not the Parole Board—are the Minister the Department of Corrections and the much-vaunted integrated offender management system that they are so proud of—a system that continually fails continually lets people down and continually jeopardises the safety and well-being of New Zealanders as it has done in this case. 
No disclosure was made to the staff of Cardijn House as to this man’s past. I understand that there was disclosure to a priest who recommended that he go there but no disclosure at all was made to the female staff of that place or indeed to the 76-year-old woman who ran it. Why not? Because this politically correct Government will not allow such disclosure about people who are placed on home detention. Indeed Mr Rick Barker stood up and told this House one day there were no violent offenders on home detention. How does that Minister feel today? He is soft on crime Labour is politically correct and the people who pay the price for that are people like “victim C” a young innocent woman who was conned and duped and whose children were threatened.