The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that officers in Gisborne failed in their duty of care for a woman who died while in Police cells. The Authority completed its investigation in May 2024, but was obliged to wait for the Police employment process before publishing its report.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 22 November 2023, after a three-week trial at the Gisborne High Court, 63-year-old Lynne Martin was convicted of murder. She was then taken to the Gisborne Police Custody Suite (part of the Police Station) where she was to stay overnight, for later transportation to a Corrections facility.

Ms Martin was searched, assessed in terms of her physical health and mental wellbeing to determine the most appropriate monitoring regime while in custody, and placed in a cell by herself. Ms Martin was scheduled to be checked every two hours. For various reasons, not all checks were completed. That night, eight other people were also being detained.

At around 7.20am on 23 November, an officer went to speak to Ms Martin in her cell and found she had died. The circumstances of her death are before the coroner for determination, but no evidence of a crime was detected.

The Authority found that initially, the care of Ms Martin in Police custody was appropriate and in line with Police’s obligations considering the information available.

However, in our view receiving officers should have applied a wider consideration of Ms Martin’s circumstances instead of relying on a computer-based assessment and observation plan. Ms Martin had just been convicted of murder and was in poor health. If these considerations had been factored into the Police assessment, it is likely she would have been checked more frequently.

Later, two officers acted unprofessionally, which presented a danger to all the detainees, by failing to complete physical checks as outlined in Police policy; and by submitting a false record of physical checks which were not completed. One officer also displayed poor judgement when he left his duties during his shift.

Police have advised the Authority that several improvements have been made at Gisborne since this incident. We also made two recommendations for improvements.

We acknowledge the tragic circumstances of the overall event and the death of Ms Martin.

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