Interim Name Suppression Review Petition
13th December 2018

On Monday 10th December the accused of the murder of Grace Millane was declined name suppression by Judge Evangelos Thomas but defence lawyer, Ian Brookie, appealed the Judge’s decision.

This sadly is not the first time this has happened.

Jess McVicar, Youth Advocate, from the Sensible Sentencing Trust says it turned Monday’s court session into a pointless waste of time. “Grace’s poor family had to sit and experience how ridiculous New Zealand’s Justice System is, they had to sit through court, listening to the decision of name suppression being declined as they requested, and then they get that thrown in their faces by our criminal friendly legal system.”

Jess says the Sensible Sentencing Trust will be calling for a review of interim name suppressions in court.

“Firstly, we want the right to appeal the decline of name suppression reviewed in the Criminal Procedure Act. For the family of a victim to have to go through that process, face their child’s accused murderer only to have the Judge’s decision over turned due to human rights of an offender is appalling. A Judge makes their decision based on facts given to them and that all gets thrown out simply by the defence appealing it.”

Jess says the appeal right is purely for the accused or offender, showing just how criminal-friendly our system is.

“Name suppression is supposed to be about protecting an innocent victim but is often used by the defence to suppress the name of the accused/offender for their own benefit.”

If the victim has been named publicly then name suppression of the accused should be void unless police deem the investigation would be assisted by having the suppression in place” says Jess.

Please help us get this petition in front of parliament and see some overdue changes in our outdated legal system by clicking on the link below and signing the petition.

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