[WARNING: Contains graphic content relating to sexual violence and murder]

Chris Lynch interviews Corrections Canterbury District Manager Toni Stewart [ABOVE]

An extremely violent rapist deemed “too dangerous” to be released from prison, brutally murdered Juliana Bonilla-Herrera in her Christchurch home after being released.

But a review has cleared Corrections’ staff.

Joseph James Brider pleaded guilty to her murder in September, and also admitted to a charge of abduction for sexual connection and breaching his release conditions.

The 35-year old was been sentenced to preventive detention.

Brider had only been released from prison in November 2021, 11 weeks before Juliana’s death.

He’d been serving time since 2014, after he was convicted of various sexual offences including rape.

Corrections Canterbury District Manager Toni Stewart said “I cannot begin to imagine the pain that Juliana’s family continue to experience as a result of this serious and devastating crime, and hope that today’s sentencing brings them some closure.

Our thoughts are also with the victim of Mr Brider’s previous offending as this will also be incredibly distressing for them.”

Corrections’ Chief Probation Officer, Darius Fagan, conducted a review into the management of Brider while he was on parole. It was completed in July 2022.

“Many people worked hard to ensure Brider had the right support in place and the review found he was managed appropriately, with a significant level of oversight and support provided to him both prior to and after his release from prison. At no point were any concerns raised with Corrections about his integration into the community.”

Toni Stewart said “however, this does not change the fact that Juliana’s life was tragically taken.

We have taken on board recent public concerns about how we notify local communities when people are released from prison, and commissioned an independent review into our notification policy to ensure it is clear, transparent, fit for purpose and contributes to public safety.”

Brider was granted parole by the New Zealand Parole Board and released from prison in November 2021. This was three months ahead of his statutory release date in February 2022.

 In the Parole Board’s decision to grant parole, they imposed 14 special conditions to sit alongside the standard release conditions set out in the Parole Act 2002.

These special conditions included electronic monitoring, exclusion zones (areas the person cannot enter), to not contact any victims or family members of the victims of their offending, and to take part in treatment and rehabilitation. He did not have any conditions in relation to his use of the internet. 

Toni Stewart said “he was not prosecuted for any breach of his conditions during his time on parole in the community or recalled to prison at any time. 

 While in prison, he undertook intensive treatment programmes for alcohol and drug use and violence, as well as receiving a high level of support from reintegration services prior to his release.”

 Toni Stewart said “following his release from prison, he was supported into employment and staff ensured there was collaboration between Police and support organisations. Given he was assessed as being a medium-high risk of reoffending prior to release, a Community Corrections manager conducted a review to ensure he continued to be managed appropriately. 

While the Chief Probation Officer’s review found that the actions of staff neither caused nor could have prevented this offending, we have taken a number of steps to further strengthen our processes nationwide.”

This includes conducting a quality audit to ensure curfews are being correctly recorded on offender’s records and reviewing the workloads of Community Corrections staff to provide further assurances that their workloads are being actively managed. We have also assigned a dedicated manager to further support and coordinate with reintegration service providers. 

Toni Stewart said “while it was noted that it would have likely not changed the outcome, the review did note that a curfew placed on Mr Brider was not loaded into the electronic monitoring system, as per one of his special conditions. However, if the curfew had been loaded an alert would not have been generated at the time of the murder due to the close proximity of Juliana’s property to his. The probation officer was completing regular checks of his compliance with his electronic monitoring conditions, including the curfew, during the period he was on parole in the community. He had not breached this special condition prior to the night of the murder.

As a result, we are working with our electronic monitoring provider to enhance monitoring at addresses that are in close proximity to other properties.”