Burton warrant sat in in-tray 13 days

Alt Tv/Fleet FM breakfast News Comment
Burton warrant sat in in-tray 13 days
A warrant to arrest Graeme Burton lay in court and police in-trays for 13 days, delaying the search for the murderer who then killed again. Police had been on high alert for Burton since he was freed in July 2006, with an internal file note advising that he was "highly violent and anti-police" and that "he will appear calm and casual but will attack without warning or provocation". The courts issued a warrant for the arrest of Burton on December 22 - a month after police had told his probation officer he was on P, taxing drug dealers and could murder again. But as offices closed and staff went on leave at Christmas, the warrant was not picked up and acted upon till January 3, the same day armed police were told he was assaulting a man with weapons in an inner-city Wellington apartment. Burton continued to evade police till January 6, when he went on a gun-toting rampage, killing father-of-two Karl Kuchenbecker and injuring four others in the hills of Wainuiomata. Yesterday, at the coroner's inquest into Mr Kuchenbecker's death, the lawyer for his family, Nikki Pender, asked why The Dominion Post had reported the warrant had been issued the next day, yet police remained ignorant of its existence for nearly two weeks

Following the inquest over the last couple of days one gets the distinct impression that the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing, sure they’ve all made the right noises about new procedures and checking systems now, but that’s all a wee bit late for the Kuchenbecker family – the reality is our prison system is an antiquated, corrupt, violent environment so lost in a pit of despair, no one takes responsibility for the final product coming out because everyone knows the final product inevitably ends up worse than when they went in.