A coronial inquest will examine how a convicted rapist was released on parole and managed in the community before brutally murdering a woman in her Christchurch home just 10 weeks after he was let out of prison.
Colombian national Juliana Bonilla-Herrera, 37, was attacked and stabbed to death in her Addington flat by Joseph James Brider in January 2022 after he was paroled to the flat next door.
She did not know about his criminal history of sexual violence.
Brider was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 23 years and preventive detention in February 2023, meaning he would be managed by the Department of Corrections for the rest of his life.
Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame would examine more than 20 issues during the 10-day inquest beginning in Christchurch on Monday.
They included pre-release decisions, information provided to the New Zealand Parole Board, Department of Corrections checks about the suitability of Brider’s accommodation, how he was managed and monitored following his release and whether the community should have been informed.
At Brider’s sentencing, Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier described the killing as a person’s “worst nightmare”, while Justice Jonathan Eaton said the murder involved “a high degree of brutality, cruelty, depravity and callousness”.
In the weeks before she was killed, Bonilla-Herrera told friends Brider was watching her and she felt threatened and unsafe.
On the night of her murder he broke into her flat as she slept and subjected her to a prolonged and violent attack, repeatedly stabbing and beating her as she begged for her life.
Brider was granted parole and released in November 2021, three months ahead of his statutory release date.
He was assessed as being a medium-to-high risk of re-offending and paroled under 14 special conditions, including electronic monitoring.
The circumstances of Brider’s release and his management were reviewed by the Department of Corrections and Parole Board following Bonilla-Herrera’s murder.
An internal Department of Corrections review of Brider’s management by chief probation officer Darius Fagan found the actions of staff neither caused nor could have prevented the crime.
In an independent review of the decision to release Brider commissioned by Parole Board chair Sir Ron Young, Professor Devon Polaschek concluded the board’s decision to release him three months ahead of his statutory release date was reasonable.
The Parole Board had wanted to release Brider to the rehabilitation centre Salisbury Street Foundation, but said it was told there was no bed available at the time of his release.
Sir Ron said Corrections had supplied “incorrect information” when the board was deciding upon Brider’s release conditions amounting to a “serious failure”, but a separate independent review sought by the department rejected that allegation.
The review by Victoria Heine KC found that Corrections did not provide incorrect information to the Parole Board ahead of Brider’s final hearing, although it noted the board would have benefited from being advised that Corrections had cancelled the Salisbury Street referral because of uncertainty about a bed.
Corrections later changed its community notification policy to include adult sex offenders following a separate independent review by Dr Gwenda Willis.
Previous guidelines determined that the community was only alerted if a parolee had offended against children.
rnz.co.nz