Smith Nick: Urgent Debates — Ministerial Inquiry—Death of Debbie Marie Ashton 
Smith Nick: Urgent Debates — Ministerial Inquiry—Death of Debbie Marie Ashton 
[Volume:648;Page:17251] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance.  
That matter is the ministerial inquiry into the tragic death of Debbie Ashton. It is right that Parliament today debates the ministerial inquiry into this tragic death because yet again we have a tragic story of an innocent New Zealander being killed because of gross failures in our justice system. Her story is both unique and familiar—unique because it involves abuse of the police witness protection programme; familiar because yet again we see our justice system putting the rights of criminals before those of the innocent public. 
Let me recount the core facts of this tragic case. In December 2005 Jonathan Barclay was sentenced to 2½ years’ imprisonment for 24 drug fraud burglary careless driving—he was disqualified from driving—escaping custody and driving while disqualified offences. This man had an extensive criminal background going back more than 8 years. On 18 July 2006 just 7 months into his 2½ year sentence he was released on parole with a new identity under the police witness protection programme. The law requires parolees to be seen by Department of Corrections staff within 3 days of release; that did not happen for over 3 months. Just 1 week after Mr Barclay was placed in Nelson he stole a motor vehicle drove recklessly and refused to stop for police. 
Here is a guy with a criminal record as long as one’s arm and disqualified from driving who within a week of being placed in Nelson on parole reoffends and the Department of Corrections and the police do absolutely nothing. Common sense would say to put him straight back in the slammer but common sense seems an alien concept to this Government’s justice system. Nobody did a thing—not Department of Corrections staff not police. They did not even bother to monitor his parole. A police liaison officer was required to monitor this man’s placement in Nelson. He met him once in 6 months 3 days after he was placed in Nelson. The police witness protection programme requires that a person on the programme is monitored every month. They did fill out the form every month but nobody from police made contact with this offender at any time until the tragic death of Debbie Ashton. 
In August 2 weeks after Mr Barclay’s reoffending on parole he gave evidence at a trial in the Auckland High Court. At the same time the charge of stealing a motor vehicle was dropped. The impression is left that anyone on the witness protection programme can get away with anything. When Barclay appeared before the courts on 11 October he was sentenced to community work was disqualified from driving for a second time and received name suppression. In Nelson Judge Zohrab specifically noted that this was an absolute final warning for Mr Barclay and said that if he drove again he would go straight back to prison. 
Eight days later Barclay was caught drink-driving. Remember this is a guy on parole who now has two overriding disqualifications from driving. He used his fresh identity supplied by police under the witness protection programme. It is almost Keystone Cops stuff that Barclay then proceeded all the way through the court system as though he were a first-time offender. There was the same judge the same lawyer and the same courtroom and the appearances were only 3 weeks apart. Yet nobody said “Hang on! This is the guy that’s had a final warning.” I excuse the judge—we all know that hundreds of defendants come before judges each day. But police and Department of Corrections staff who both knew that this was the same man by a different name before the court as before owed it to the judge to advise him. I also put it to this House that his lawyer Mark Dollimore owed it to the court to let the judge know this. 
We also need to look at the failure of both the Department of Corrections and the police to monitor Barclay during that period. The report shows that he repeatedly failed to report to his parole officer. When one reads through this report one ends up wondering just what one has to do on parole to be recalled. Just 4 weeks after that court appearance Jonathan Barclay again in a motor vehicle and again with alcohol in his system drove over a dangerous stretch of road that had a speed limit of 45 kilometres an hour. Police reports say he was doing over 110 kilometres an hour he was airborne and he was on the wrong side of the road. Debbie Ashton never had a chance. Ironically the site of the killing was just 1 kilometre down the road from where police had picked him up for drink-driving. 
To add salt to the wound the very day that Jonathan Barclay killed Debbie Ashton he had been visited by a parole officer at 2.30 in the afternoon. The parole officer was told by Barclay’s flatmate that he was sleeping—sleeping—and that he was not to be woken. Does it not speak volumes about our perverted justice system that a dangerous criminal on parole is allowed to offend over and over again to sleep by day and to kill by night without constraint? When Barclay was interviewed by police after that killing he denied that he was at the wheel and he continued to use his temporary identity. In March last year he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 5½ years’ jail. 
But the story does not end there. It would have been blatantly obvious to the staff in the Department of Corrections and to police that their systems had failed dreadfully. I would have expected a responsible State agency at the point of this man being convicted for manslaughter to go back through and review its systems. Instead there was denial. I lodged questions with Ministers and was told that they could not tell me anything because the matter was under the police witness protection programme. I met with the family. I met with senior police from Police National Headquarters who told me that nothing had gone wrong and that everything was OK. 
The family wrote extensively to Ministers. Damien O’Connor was written to and did not even have the courtesy to respond to the family. I commend Annette King. When I approached her and asked for a formal inquiry into this matter she—in my view—acted absolutely properly and the inquiry that was subsequently undertaken did get to the bottom of the serious failings by both the Department of Corrections and the police. I want to take issue with the Minister of State Services the Hon David Parker. I find it amazing that the Minister of State Services has chosen to criticise only one person and that is ACT MP Heather Roy. Where is the criticism of the nine public servants both in the police and in the Department of Corrections who seriously let Nelson and this family down? I also have to say there has been no good reason for the delay of over 8 months since this report was delivered in December. The answers that the Minister gave in the House today only reinforced the core problem that occurred and that led to Debbie Ashton’s death which was that everybody was so cautious because the police witness protection programme was involved that they were not prepared to ensure the basic duties were followed. Again we see that attitude from that Minister today. 
I want to conclude by paying tribute to the parents Judy and Ted Ashton. They have shown huge resilience to dig and to get to the bottom of what have been awful failings in our justice and police systems. I also think we should acknowledge the excellent inquiry by Kristy McDonald which I believe fairly gets to the bottom of the issues involved. I hope that her report means that both police and the Department of Corrections take seriously their responsibilities to put at the top of their list the protection of the public and their legal duties to monitor people who are on parole. I also hope that from this tragedy there is a reinforcement of the obligation that lawyers have in the court process as a duty to the court to ensure the court is not misled and not just to honour their duties to their clients. 
I would love to say to this Parliament that I have confidence that all will be put right but I reflect on the Liam Ashley tragedy when the Department of Corrections erred badly which resulted in the death of an innocent young person in August 2006 and I reflect on all that went wrong in terms of Graeme Burton and Karl Kuchenbecker in January 2007. We were assured at the end of every one of those inquiries that everything was all OK it had all been put right. Now another innocent New Zealander has died. I put to this Parliament that there is a deeper cultural problem within our justice system that must be corrected. We need a culture that starts putting the rights of victims and the rights of the public to safety ahead of so many other considerations that seem to divert those people who work in our justice departments. I hope for the many families of New Zealand that no other family has to go through the awful tragedy that the Ashton family has gone through in this experience.