Auckland inmate Toutai Loto'ahea gets more prison time for officer attack
Toutai Loto'ahea, 21, was serving time at Auckland's Mt Eden Correctional Facility in September 2023 when a prison officer did
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Otago Daily Times
11 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
Deadline to deal with unlawful photos missed again
Police lack an overall digital evidence handling system, and, so far, the funding to get one. Photo: RNZ Police have again missed a deadline to make certain they are not handling photos of people unlawfully. They had till the end of June this year to find a way to detect and delete all unlawfully collected material in their systems. An update showed they told Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster in March they would miss the deadline. Police were also meant to come up with a failsafe way to not use the photos in any way until they find and delete them all, but had not managed to do that either. RNZ in 2020 first exposed how police for years were wrongly collecting photos and fingerprints from the public, particularly young Māori. Webster said he was still deciding what to do next. "Not meeting the final requirements means the police has not complied fully with the notice," he said in a statement. "The commissioner is currently considering next steps ... including seeking further information to inform those next steps." Police lack an overall digital evidence handling system and, so far, the funding to get one. Police have been approached for comment.
Otago Daily Times
11 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
Man who raped and killed Chch sex worker won't be released early
Peter Waihape was sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch to preventive detention and a minimum 18-year non-parole period for the murder, abduction and rape of a Christchurch prostitute in December 2005 and the abduction and rape of another woman a few days earlier. Photo: NZ Herald via Open Justice A man who raped a sex worker he'd met in Christchurch, then ran her over with his car, reportedly laughing as he did, before throwing her half-naked body into a river has failed to secure an early release from prison. However, for the first time in nearly 10 years, Peter Waihape has consented to be seen by a psychologist. It's the first notable steps he has taken towards rehabilitation since 2014, when he withdrew his consent to be seen by a psychologist after just seven sessions, and had received no treatment since then. But, in a report released by the New Zealand Parole Board last week, Waihape has been seeing a psychologist fortnightly and has had 20 sessions. "He is considered to have made early progress," the board said, noting, however, that "he is still assessed as a high risk of violent reoffending and an above average risk of sexual reoffending". Waihape was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years in 2005 for the rape and murder of a 24-year-old sex worker he'd met in Christchurch. She'd agreed to go with him to a car park before they had an argument about his refusal to wear a condom. Waihape then strangled her, bound her hands and raped her before pushing her out of the car and then running her over with his vehicle multiple times. She became trapped under the car and was pleading for her life, but Waihape took no notice and ran her over again with witnesses saying he was laughing as he did so. Waihape then later drove the woman to the Avon River and threw her body into the water. Three days before the murder, Waihape sexually assaulted a teenager whom he'd abducted off the street. Waihape drove the girl around for several hours, violated her, then dropped her off. He had been released from prison just days before. Waihape first became eligible for parole in January last year, when the board noted it had serious concerns about him. At that hearing, Waihape told the board he was willing to resume work with a psychologist and complete any rehabilitative work he needed to do, despite not having done any since 2014. "For his part, Mr Waihape told us that when he was previously seen by the psychologist, he was not ready to engage. He was very entitled. He reacted inappropriately and he had recognised that since," panel convenor Neville Trendle said. "He had addressed his own conduct with others ... He said that he was now accepting that he needed help." Significant work ahead In his latest appearance before the board last month, the psychologist he'd been seeing noted his good conduct in prison, and said that generally he interacts well but will walk away when he feels frustrated. The board said that he was articulate and spoke well, and that his psychologist had validated a lot of what he'd said, and it had a profound impact on him. "Mr Waihape believes he needs significant individual work. He told the Board that he has made changes in his thinking and his behaviour and has managed many stressful and frustrating situations by simply not engaging," the board's ruling reads. "We spoke with him about the importance of building trust with others and communicating around what is going on in his inner world." The board said that while Waihape had made progress, there was still significant work ahead and declined parole. He will be seen again in another year. Sexual Violence By Jeremy Wilkinson Open Justice reporter
Otago Daily Times
11 minutes ago
- Otago Daily Times
Cryptopia customer tried to bribe court registrar for information
A man claiming to be an affected party in the collapse of a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency company has tried to bribe a court registrar to release information related to the case for $2 million in Bitcoin. New Zealand-based company Cryptopia was allegedly hacked in January 2019, leading to the loss of about $30m in cryptocurrency held by it in an exchange. The business tried to reopen, but customer trust was low following the hack, and it went into liquidation. Liquidators are still trying to disentangle its finances and return funds to customers where possible. In December last year, public accountancy firm Grant Thornton announced that $400 million in cryptocurrency had been returned to about 10,000 customers. Then, in June this year, the firm announced a further 2624 customers had received $50m in Bitcoin and Dogecoin. It was also preparing to launch distributions to affected customers to qualifying account holders in Cardano, Tether, Tron and Litecoin currencies. Cryptopia, founded by Adam Clark and Rob Dawson, owed IRD more than $19m and a further $22m to unsecured creditors. The accountancy firm has said it was unclear whether there would be money remaining to pay those creditors. 'I need assets returned to me' Now, a man claiming to be a creditor has applied to the High Court at Christchurch to access court documents related to the liquidation of Cryptopia. The case has been before the court since liquidators applied for a court order to sell some of Cryptopia's bitcoin to pay their own fees in liquidating the company. The documents the man requested were related to an affidavit filed in 2019 by one of the liquidators, David Ruscoe, in which he annexed two spreadsheets containing databases of commercially sensitive and confidential information relating to 960,000 of Cryptopia's account holders and their cryptocurrency holdings. The court had received the information on a USB drive. According to court documents, a court registrar inadvertently sent it to Thomas Cattermole, who runs an unincorporated enterprise called 'Cryptopia Rescue' that purports to offer help to former customers of Cryptopia. Grant Thornton then took Cattermole to court, claiming he was in contempt of court for passing the information held on that USB to third parties, and secured an injunction to stop him sharing the information further. 'Abuse of process' Any member of the public can request documents held by a court, but it's at the judge's discretion to release them. In this case, the man, emailed the Christchurch High Court registry requesting access to the confidential spreadsheet. 'I would like to seek out answers as to why the TRUSTEE / Liquidator are hiding the blockchain wallet addresses for my assets. They have breached trust law, and I would like to seek out the return of my funds. I need assets returned to me,' his email read. Grant Thornton opposed those documents being released, noting that a person by the same name was currently going through the account registration process to receive funds released by liquidators. In addition to filing a request for access to Ruscoe's affidavit, the man emailed a court registrar and said he had faced 'significant barriers' in accessing the information he was seeking. A registrar responded, identifying themselves as the case manager, and the man then replied with allegations about the conduct of the liquidators. He told the registrar that if they saw 'anything dodgy happen', to email a private email address, which he provided. 'They can't pay you, but I think they will donate 10 bitcoin to any wallet of the whistleblower's choice,' his email said. Ten Bitcoin is roughly equivalent to $2 million at the time the ruling was issued. The man also accused High Court judge, Justice Andru Isac, of holding a private teleconference with the liquidators. In a recent ruling by Justice Isac declining the man's application for the requested documents, he pointed out that the man had attempted to arrange an unlawful Bitcoin payment to a member of the court registry in exchange for information, before providing an email address to facilitate a private response. 'Given the applicant's improper attempt to solicit information from a Court officer I am satisfied the request for access to Court documents is an abuse of process,' Justice Isac said. 'The party lodging the request has not provided proof of their identity. They claim to be residing overseas. 'And as the premise of the application is the applicant's desire to be repatriated with an account held by Cryptopia, given the liquidators have an identification process available to the applicant, it is unclear why he should need access to Court documents to establish his interest in the relevant account. 'That information should already be available to him.'
