Police seek to plug identification loophole

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 4

Police seek to plug identification loophole

PA Wellington The police say that they want to plug a loophole that enables defendants in criminal trials to identify witnesses by using the Official Information Act They say that witnesses can be subjected to emotional or physical harm if identified and this can deter people from testifying in court

In the police submission to the Royal Commission on Social Policy, Chief Superintendent Jim Morgan, of Wellington, said that he was concerned about the recent case of a prison inmate convicted of robbery who obtained the police files on his case and the name of a witness.

He wrote to the woman, who said she felt “very, very threatened” by the letter.

She then wrote to the police complaining that he had got hold of her name.

She said, “I was doing my duty as a law-abiding citizen in being a witness, but if this is all the thanks you get, next time I will

have to think twice.”

Chief Superintendent Morgan said that consideration needed to be given to how to protect witnesses from emotional and physical harm and if it was not given, people would become more unwilling to act as witnesses — already a worrying trend.

He said that the man concerned was not due to be freed for two years, which probably meant the woman would worry for the next two years and tell other people of her ordeal, so discouraging them.

Under the Official Information Act of 1982, anyone can seek access to information about them held by the authorities.

In the case cited, the prisoner applied to both the police and the Ombudsman for access to his files.

But a Justice Department lawyer, Ms Margaret Nixon, said that under an April, 1987, amendment, the authorities could withhold such information if there was a risk of violence toward

anyone as a result

The amendment was intended to cover the safety of all witnesses and informers.

Chief Superintendent Morgan said that his concern was that just withholding someone’s name was not always enough.

“Sometimes other information is so specific that it would hardly take the brain of an Einstein to figure out who the person (witness) is.” The Official Information Act was used to great effect last year by a prisoner. Dean Wickliffe, who also obtained information about his case.

He had his 14-year-old murder conviction reduced to manslaughter by the Court of Appeal. Chief Superintendent Morgan said that he favoured the Act, as did the whole of the police force, but a loophole was present that had led, in at least one case, to a witness being threatened. The loophole needed to be plugged and witnesses protected from emotional as well as physical harm, he said.