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Joseph James Brider, who murdered Colombian woman Juliana Bonilla Herrera, will spend at least the next 23 years behind bars.
The Parole Board’s chairperson has claimed Corrections’ wrong information led to murderer Joseph Brider residing next to his potential victim Juliana Herrera.
Herrera, a New Zealand resident originally from Colombia, was brutally murdered by Brider, then 35, on January 22, last year, when he broke into her flat and – after subjecting her to a sadistic ordeal – stabbed her to death as she tried to escape.
Brider was on Wednesday sentenced to life and preventive detention with a non-parole period of 23 years.
On Wednesday, Parole Board chairperson Sir Ron Young released an independent report from Professor Devon Polaschek into the board’s decision in October 2021 to release Brider on parole on November 10, 2021. Brider had been jailed for rape in 2014.
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Polaschek concluded the board’s decision to release Brider was reasonable based on the information available to it.
Young said he had spoken to Herrera’s family in Colombia conveying information he received from Corrections that the Salisbury Street Foundation, a residential reintegration centre for released prison inmates, did not have a bed for Brider.
Salisbury Street was the board’s preferred accommodation for Brider and was discussed extensively at Brider’s June 2021 parole hearing, Young said.
“This was also the information provided to Professor Polaschek to inform her independent review of the Parole Board’s decision.
“I now believe the information provided to the board by Corrections that there was no room available at the Salisbury Street Foundation for a release on parole was not correct.
Oriana Perkinson/Supplied
Juliana Bonilla Herrera, 37, was found dead inside her home on Grove Road, Addington, Christchurch on January 22, 2022.
“It is my understanding that after the June 2021 parole hearing, where it was clearly intended that Mr Brider would be released to the Salisbury Street Foundation, Corrections contacted the foundation and cancelled the referral. This occurred in August of 2021.”
The Parole Board was not made aware of the change in the release plan by Corrections at any time before Brider’s release on parole, Young said.
“The Salisbury Street Foundation have now told the board that they had a bed available for Mr Brider if he had been released in June and would have still made a room available for him following the October parole hearing.”
The failure to inform the board about the cancellation was “very serious”.
“It is the Parole Board and not Corrections that decides where an offender may be released to on parole. To do that effectively the board relies on accurate information from Corrections.
STUFF
Joseph James Brider who murdered Colombian woman Juliana Bonilla Herrera will spend at least the next 23 years behind bars.
“Corrections had no authority from the board to withdraw the application to the Salisbury Street Foundation when it was aware that was the board’s preferred address and that a bed was available for Mr Brider.
“It is clear to me that Corrections’ failure to provide this vital information compromised the board’s decision-making.
The board would most definitely have released Brider to the Salisbury Street Foundation if it had known the correct facts, Young said.
Corrections Chief Executive Jeremy Lightfoot said he had not yet been able to substantiate whether Young’s claim was correct.
“That’s why I have called for an independent review into this claim. I am determined to understand exactly what has occurred here so Juliana’s family have the clarity they so rightly deserve. I would like to apologise for any distress this has caused them during what has already been a difficult and traumatic week.”
