15 Nov 2017

Prisoner claims unfair punishment, alleges misbehaviour

From Morning Report, 6:49 am on 15 November 2017

A lawyer is calling for an independent investigation into whether a child murderer was unfairly punished by staff at Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt. Hayden Wallace, who shot dead toddler Jhia Te Tua in Wanganui in 2007, claims he lost his prison job in February because he saw a woman officer and a manager being intimate on the job. A Corrections investigation in September found it was Wallace and the woman who'd developed an unhealthily close relationship and backed the decision to move him out of his job, as it kept everyone safe. Wallace's lawyer Michael Bott told RNZ reporter Phil Pennington the inquiry has skated over what Wallace says he saw in the prison administration block 11 months ago.