It s not our crime, but it s still our sentence : Pillars founder Verna McFelin
11 minutes to read
By: Joanna Wane
Pillars founder Verna McFelin talks to Joanna Wane about her life inside and outside the prison wire. People have long memories in a small town like Ōamaru. Not everyone is prepared to forgive the past, even four decades on, or willing to forget it.
Verna McFelin was born in Ōamaru, like four generations before her on both sides of the family. It s where she met her husband, Paul, when they were both teenagers, where she gave birth to their four children, and where they opened the town s first pizza parlour.
Complaints scupper book launch oamarumail.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from oamarumail.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Gloria Kong kidnap book launch at Oamaru Library cancelled after complaints
7 Apr, 2021 06:39 PM
3 minutes to read
Gloria Kong is taken from the Oamaru Police Station by her father Jimmy Kong after being freed after a massive manhunt. Photo / New Zealand Herald, File
Gloria Kong is taken from the Oamaru Police Station by her father Jimmy Kong after being freed after a massive manhunt. Photo / New Zealand Herald, File
Otago Daily Times
By: Ruby Heyward
A book detailing the impact one of North Otago s most notorious crimes had on one of its participant s family has stirred up controversy in the community almost 40 years on.
KIRK HARGREAVES/Stuff
Verna McFelin’s North Otago launch of her book, The Invisible Sentence, was cancelled after complaints were received.(File photo)
A North Otago launch for a book referencing one of the region s most high-profile crimes has been cancelled after complaints were received. Verna McFelin, founder of the charity Pillars, which advocates for the rights of the children of prisoners, was to launch her book at the Ōamaru Public Library on Friday.
The Invisible Sentence is about her and her four children’s experience after husband Paul McFelin was sent to prison for 11 years after the kidnapping of Gloria Kong, 14, in Oamaru in 1983.