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System fails murdered woman

Sam Sherwood and Lee Kenny

Corrections “policy” meant a woman murdered in her own home by a neighbour was never notified he was on parole for rape.

That notification policy is now under review, as advocates call for a system overhaul.

Joseph James Brider, 35, pleaded guilty this month to murdering his neighbour, Juliana Cayena Bonilla Herrera, and abducting her with the intent to have sexual connection between January 21 and 22.

Brider had been out of prison on parole for only 10 weeks after serving seven years’ jail for raping a woman in 2014.

The case has horrified members of Christchurch’s Latin community, especially those who moved in the same social circles as Bonilla Herrera.

Dance instructor Lucy Valentiness, from Argentina, teaches a dance class that Bonilla Herrera attended, and they had several mutual friends. She described hearing about her death as “shocking”.

“A couple of girls from the dance team . . . were really close [with Bonilla Herrera] . . . One of them received a phone call with the news that they found Juliana. I went with her, just to support her.”

Before releasing Brider, the Parole Board assessed him as high risk of violent offending and moderately high risk of sexual offending.

He was placed in a halfway house in Addington next door to Bonilla Herrera. The 37-year-old, who did not know of Brider’s past, had told friends she felt like he was watching her.

Members of newly formed group New Zealand for Sexual Assault Justice said Bonilla Herrera was failed by the system, and she would still be alive if she had been told about his previous offending. ‘‘She wasn’t notified, if she had been she wouldn’t be dead,’’ Rocío Herrera said.

‘‘She was already scared of him, if she had known she would not

have slept there one night by herself. The fact they didn’t notify her, killed her.’’

Herrera did not know Bonilla Herrera but is in contact with her family and close friends and said they support the call for greater accountability around her death.

‘‘We want Juliana’s death not to be in vain,’’ she said.

Valentiness and Herrera are co-founders of the newly formed group, and plan to lobby Parliament to get rules regarding sex offenders changed.

‘‘We want accountability and we want a change in the process and the laws around the release of sexual offenders into the community,’’ Herrera said. ‘‘We want to know why she is dead, what was done wrong?’’ In response to a series of questions from

The Press, chief probation officer Darius Fagan said Corrections would review its existing notification policy ‘‘to ensure it continues to support public safety’’.

‘‘Our current policy is largely focused on community notification for child sex offenders, but also provides for the notification of people subject to extensive supervision orders. The policy also does not automatically exclude the notification of people with other offences. For example, if a person had a high risk of reoffending combined with a history of targeting people not known to them, then staff would consider notifying neighbouring residents.’’

Fagan had carried out a full review into Brider’s management during his time on parole. The review was completed in July.

Corrections wanted to work with police to offer to meet Bonilla Herrera’s family so they could receive a copy of the review after Brider was sentenced in December and discuss the findings and any questions they might have, he said. About 15,000 people are required to be released from prison each year, and Corrections was ‘‘committed’’ to doing everything it could to ensure each person was ‘‘safely reintegrated’’ into the community and had safe, suitable accommodation, Fagan said.

‘‘We fully acknowledge that the location of offenders can be a concern for communities, and we work hard to balance this concern with our obligation to safely manage people in the community when they can no longer lawfully be detained in prison.’’

Victims’ advocate Ruth Money said the community deserved ‘‘infinitely better service and protection’’.

Corrections made a ‘‘massive error’’ failing to notify Bonilla Herrera of Brider’s criminal history.

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2022-09-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282011856238181

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