DUNEDIN (NEW ZEALAND)
Otago Daily Times
January 4, 2018
By Chris Morris
A Dunedin survivor of historic abuse in state care says the number of prosecutions resulting from a national listening service is ”a joke”.
Figures released to the Otago Daily Times, following an Official Information Act request, showed just two offenders had been successfully prosecuted as a result of referrals to police by the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service (CLAS).
The CLAS panel, launched in 2008, travelled the country to hear from about 1100 people – 57% of whom said they had been sexually abused in state care – before issuing its final report in 2015.
However, information released to the ODT by Detective Inspector David Kirby, the national manager of the police’s sexual violence and child protection unit, underscored the difficulties in securing convictions for historic offending dating back to the 1950s.
The figures showed the CLAS had referred 90 people to police, but 54 were for requests for further information only.
The remaining 36 referrals had led to criminal investigations being conducted, but charges were laid in just eight cases and just two prosecutions had been successful by September last year, the figures showed.
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