Release plan for Joseph James Brider 'a very good one', insists Corrections
Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame presides over an inquest into the murder of Juliana Bonilla-Herrera.
Photo:
KAI SCHWOERER / POOL
A former Corrections' manager has defended how the release of a convicted rapist on parole was handled, before he brutally murdered a woman in her Christchurch home.
Juliana Bonilla-Herrera was stabbed to death by Joseph James Brider in January 2022, 10 weeks after he was paroled to an adjoining unit in Grove Street, Addington.
An inquest into the Colombian woman's death continued on Thursday in front of Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame.
Darius Fagan, who was chief probation officer at Corrections at the time of Brider's release in November 2021, gave evidence in court, as the department's procedures and policies in place at the time were again put under the microscope.
Counsel assisting the coroner Rebekah Jordan asked what rights probation officers had to identify people who could be at risk from Brider.
Fagan said directly informing neighbours of a potential risk was fraught with difficulty.
Juliana Bonilla-Herrera was murdered by convicted rapist Joseph James Brider.
Photo:
Supplied
"[Neighbourhoods] are dynamic environments," he said. "Things change all the time as we know.
"When a probation officer becomes aware that an address is no longer suitable or there are some concerns with an address, there are a number of actions they can take at that point and time.
"They can direct people... not to associate or interact with a particular person, they can consider changing the address, they can consider enforcement action depending on what the situation is."
Brider had told his probation officer that all his neighbours were elderly, but the probation was unable to confirm this during several visits in the middle of the day.
An option of leaving a business card with neighbours should any concerns arise was put to Fagan, but he argued this action would not lessen risk or concern.
"I think providing a number and a card without any context is not going to help anyone," he said. "That's why we have a policy and some procedures that have quite a high bar to reach around risk, before we would go and do this kind of activity."
Fagan said he had reservations about the department being portrayed as an emergency service and that concerns could be flagged with police.
Although Brider was initially endorsed to be moved into the more intensive Salisbury Street Foundation rehabilitation centre, doubts over capacity saw his parole accommodation being managed through the Pathway Trust charity.
Counsel assisting the coroner Rebekah Jordan during an inquest into the murder of Juliana Bonilla-Herrera.
Photo:
KAI SCHWOERER / POOL
Brider's release plan through Pathway remained "a very good one", Fagan said.
Listening in via audio-visual link, Bonilla-Herrera's sister, Saray Bonilla, put questions to Corrections, through the in-court interpreters that were present for proceedings.
"If Mr Brider were assigned as a neighbour to your sister, your niece, your cousin, would you not consider it necessary to warn them that they might be in danger?"
Fagan said the department did not consider what happened to Bonilla-Herrera so soon after he had been paroled as a possibility.
"If someone was being released to be a neighbour of anyone in my family or friends, I know from my work, they're much safer with the oversight of Corrections and providers like Pathways than without that oversight.
"That support frequently prevents serious situations from occurring, just not all of those situations."
Coroner Cunninghame asked how the department legally weighed up reducing risk against protecting Brider's privacy.
"Is an attractive female who moves next door to an identifiable group of persons where the protective elements of the Corrections Act should trump the Privacy Act?"
Fagan replied that was a possible scenario, but Brider did not fall into the community notification criteria. Alerting the community could also heighten a situation.
"Telling people doesn't, in itself, reduce the risk in any way," he said. "In doing that, we exercise a lot of caution, because it can also be quite disruptive to a reintegration process.
"There's a likelihood that it can increase the risk."
Chief probation officer for Corrections Toni Stewart, who began her evidence on Thursday afternoon, also expressed similar sentiments over alerting neighbouring residents.
Stewart also said Corrections was hampered by a lack of rehabilitative community providers for paroled prisoners.
"If somewhere like Salisbury Street or another provider had more capacity, it would be used," she said. "Another complicating factor often is that the number of people needing the service exceeding the bed availability means there is the constant need to prioritise.
"People who might have been suited to a service are effectively trumped by someone who needs it just that little bit more."
The inquest will enter a fifth day on Friday.
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