Accommodation problem

Press, 10 September 1988, Page 5

Accommodation problem

PA Auckland An intellectually handicapped young man had to spend several nights in police holding cells this week as the courts, police and his lawyer struggled to find someone to look after him.

Until a temporary place was found in an I.H.C. hostel on Thursday, Terry Wright, aged 22, faced the prospect of being sent to Mount Eden Prison until he could be sentenced on a minor charge. Judge Ken Richardson was forced to remand the man, facing a charge of trespass and a count of carrying a knife, in police custody several times this week when no welfare homes could be found to

look after him. “If the offer of accommodation had not come through there would have been no alternative as things stood but to place the defendant in Mount Eden Prison,” Judge Richardson said in the Papakura District Court on Thursday.

“That is not a place for a person with disabilities.”

He remanded him on bail to Hinemoa House in Papakura for sentence on the possession of an offensive weapon charge on September 23. Defence counsel, Ms Sue Styants, said it was .hoped a place could be found for Wright in an I.H.C. hostel at Pukekohe by then.

His plight first came to light when the police received complaints of a young man hanging around Southmall, Manurewa. He was eventually arrested and charged with trespass. But officers then faced the problem of how to look after him, said Ms Styants. His parents are unable to look after him, she said.

A medical assessment found that the man, although intellectually handicapped, could understand the court system and was able to face his charge.

He spent last week-end in the Papakura police cells, said Ms Styants.