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Police did not have a clear process for dealing with people on probation for life when officers detained a convicted killer en route to his second brutal murder in 24 years, the police watchdog says.
But it was “reasonable” to let him go, despite the fact that he was drunk and had knives in the car.
Paul Pounamu Tainui, born Paul Russell Wilson, was on probation for the 1994 murder of his girlfriend, Kimberley Schroder, 21, when he was caught driving under the influence of alcohol in Christchurch on April 6, 2018.
Shortly after leaving the booze bus, he took a taxi to the Merivale home of Nicole Tuxford, 27, and waited overnight to rape and murder her when he got home around 8 a.m.
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Wilson, then 55, was sentenced in March last year to life in prison, with a minimum period without parole of 28 years.
On Thursday, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) released its investigation into the alcohol checkpoint.
GEORGE HEARD / THINGS
Who is Paul Russell Wilson, the double murderer who murdered two women 24 years apart?
He found it “reasonable” that the officer did not arrest or detain Tainui when they found him driving drunk and with knives in his car.
“At that time there were no clear processes for him to follow regarding parolees and nothing in the law that requires parolees to be arrested when they are suspected of committing a crime in prison,” said the President of the IPCA, Judge Colin Doherty.
Tuxford’s mother, Cherie Gillatt, said officers who dealt with Tainui should not have let him go.
“They made wrong decisions.
“They had him for driving under the influence, knives in his car, they had done it for killing Kim and on probation. They let him go. “
Stuff He previously revealed the statements made by the two officers who dealt with Tainui the night before he killed Tuxford. The names of both officers were drawn up in documents published under the Official Information Law.
Officer A was part of an 11-person team that opened an alcohol checkpoint on Bealey Ave, between Madras and Manchester streets, around 9.45 p.m. on April 6, 2018.
Supplied
Nicole Marie Tuxford, 27, was found dead inside an Exeter St property on April 7, 2018.
A short time later, he noticed a car stop at some nearby traffic lights and then slowly back up to 30 meters against traffic.
When asked why he backed up his car, Tainui said he needed to “park”.
He admitted he had had a couple of drinks and was found to be almost three times the legal limit for drunk driving, having recorded 614 micrograms of alcohol per liter of breath.
The officer verified Tainui on the National Intelligence Application (NIA) and saw an alert on his profile.
When asked why he was driving, Tainui said he was “going to a friend’s house on Manchester St.”
The officer took Tainui’s photograph and fingerprints, and told him that his car key would be at the Christchurch Central Police Station for 12 hours.
The officer knew that Tainui’s earlier murder involved a “stab / chop weapon”, so he was concerned when he asked if he could get some knives out of his car.
Tainui claimed that he needed them to work, but the officer told him that he would be “happier if they stayed in the car … considering his criminal history.”
David Walker / Stuff
Cherie Gillatt, Nicole Tuxford’s mother, with family and friends after Paul Tainui’s sentencing.
Officer B was testing another drunk driver while Officer A processed Tainui.
“My observations of Tainui were that he was cooperative … and he did everything [Officer A] I ask. I never heard him raise his voice or feel frustrated. “
Later, Officer A told Officer B about Tainui’s previous conviction for murder.
“We didn’t know any details about this murder, only that it existed.”
Officer A had been with the alcohol trafficking team for more than three years at the time and did not recall detaining anyone just for driving under the influence.
In dealing with Tainui, nothing had “prompted” him to do more than treat him as a regular drunk driving offense.
Officer A said that he believed Tainui’s explanation about the knives. Police investigations at Tainui’s workplace, whose name has been suppressed, confirmed that he had motives to use knives at work.
The authority accepted. Officer A had no reason to arrest Tainui.
A person who is on parole can be returned to prison by the Parole Board to continue serving his sentence. In the case of a person on probation for life, such removal would result in a new indefinite detention.
The authority said police could have contacted a Corrections probation officer so they could decide whether to file a withdrawal request.
Officer A admitted that parolees were not “within his knowledge or practice” and he was unaware of the removal process.
GEORGE HEARD / THINGS
Paul Tainui was sentenced to life in prison with 28 years without parole.
Under the Bail Act of 2000, Tainui would likely have had to be released on police bail if he had been arrested for driving under the influence.
The IPCA said it was “apparent” that the officers did not receive specific training on the legislation governing parolees and the conditions of parole, and that they had “very limited” knowledge about the processes governing removals.
In Tainui’s case, police examined his full parole files after Tuxford was killed and noted that his behavior tended to worsen when he drank alcohol.
None of that information was in the NIA.
Corrections and police do not have the same system for storing information.
Since then, the police have worked with Corrections to address this.
Officers are instructed to arrest a person on probation for life if they have committed any crime punishable by imprisonment and to contact Corrections through a 24/7 Incident Line.
The corrections inform the police if they will make a request to return the person on probation for life to prison. If you decide not to do so, the police should use their discretion.
The IPCA emphasized that even if this system had been in place when Tuxford was assassinated, it was “by no means certain” that her death would have been prevented.
Ultimately, officers must exercise their discretion as to whether or not to keep a person in custody, and they must make that decision in accordance with the law. Officer A did so in this case and cannot be faulted for the actions he took. “
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Paul Russell Wilson, right, pictured with David Bain in 1999 while in prison.
Canterbury District Commander Superintendent John Price said Tuxford’s murder was a “tragedy.”
“His family remains in our thoughts as they continue to deal with the unimaginable pain and anguish caused by his loss.
“Our thoughts also remain with the family of Kim Schroder, who was murdered by Tainui in 1994, for the gruesome trauma they faced after Nicole’s murder.”
Police accepted the IPCA’s findings, he said.
The officers who dealt with Tainui had been “deeply affected” by his “despicable actions”, but had no way of predicting what he would do.
“As described in this report, they made the right decisions based on the information they had.”
