Monique Ford/Stuff
Daniel Fitzgerald kissed a woman on Cuba St in Wellington, and struggled with the woman’s friend. (File photo)
A mentally ill man caught in a “catch 22” that kept him in jail, was serving a manifestly unjust sentence imposed under the three strikes law, the Crown concedes. But in the Supreme Court on Tuesday deputy Solicitor-General Madeleine Laracy said a parliamentary majority had agreed with the scheme, with the only “safety valve” being the possibility for parole if a judge allowed it. But that had not worked for Daniel Clinton Fitzgerald, 47, who had a history of grabbing women on the street, so when he kissed a woman on Cuba St, Wellington, in December 2016, it was a “third strike” for indecent assault.
Mentally ill Wellington man Daniel Clinton Fitzgerald fighting for prison release in Supreme Court newshub.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newshub.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Claire Eastham-Farrelly/RNZ
A civil claim has been taken against the use of a potent pepper spray at Auckland women’s prison. (File photo)
The High Court has been asked to stop prison authorities using “Cell Buster” pepper spray on inmates, pending a full hearing of the case against its use. Marketed as “Making grown men cry since 1975”, the Cell Buster spray had been used about 27 times in the past five years in New Zealand prisons, the lawyer for a prisoner, Karma Cyntilla Cripps, told a judge in Wellington on Friday. Lawyer Douglas Ewen said the preponderance of its use at Auckland Region Women’s Correction Facility was “eyebrow raising” in itself.
RNZ has reported Cell Buster was hosed into cells to gas inmates to make them submit. In court on Monday, Ewen said it appeared the former Corrections Minister Judith Collins had the Cell Buster product in mind in 2009 when regulations were introduced that first allowed the use of that type of product. Ewen told Justice Rebecca Ellis that the interim declarations sought would stop Cell Buster being used until a full hearing of a Bill of Rights claim in 2021. If the interim declaration was granted, it would not prevent Corrections staff using the cannister-type pepper spray that police used, any time the use of force was legally authorised, he said.
Prisoner sues to stop pepper spray bombs that make grown men cry
10 Dec, 2020 04:54 AM
5 minutes to read
A woman going to the High Court to try to stop Corrections gassing inmates. Photo / 123RF
A woman going to the High Court to try to stop Corrections gassing inmates. Photo / 123RF
RNZ
By Guyon Espiner, RNZ
An asthmatic woman who was bombed with pepper spray in her Auckland prison cell is going to the High Court to stop Corrections gassing inmates in future.
Karma Cripps, her partner Mihi Bassett and two other inmates were gassed inside their cells at Auckland Women s Prison, as revealed by RNZ in November.