A coroner has found it took Whanganui Prison staff more than 30 minutes to discover one of New Zealand's most notorious sex offenders was missing, let alone dead.
Taffy Hotene committed suicide in November 2009, following a day's work in the prison's concrete factory.
In 2000, Hotene was jailed for life for murdering and raping the Auckland journalist Kylie Jones.
Coroner Carla na Nagara found that Hotene had been on and off mood stabilising drugs before his death, but had not attempted suicide since 2005.
Ms Nagara says sloppy record-keeping led to a long delay in confirming that Hotene was missing and prisoner roll-calls were haphazard.
While the coroner says the well-planned death would not have been prevented by hourly checks, she also says she is satisfied by changes made since at Whanganui Prison.
Barry Jones says while the ruling does bring some closure, he will never forgive Hotene for killing his daughter.
