escalating violence in our community Become a member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust

Mouseover links or blue arrows above for full page descriptions

Shattered Dreams

Families of New Zealand Murder Victims Speak Out

This book was compiled and largely written by retired Police Officer Bill O'Brien and was published by David Ling Publishing Ltd in 1996. The author was in the police from 1963 to 1993, and was also on the executive of Victim Support at the time of writing.
This book is no longer available new but can be picked up second hand for $10-20 depending on condition.
ISBN 0-908990-36-7

The book starts with a prologue setting out why it needed to be written , and with the founding of Family and Friends of Murder Victims, an organisation that in many ways is a predecessor of Sensible Sentencing Trust, arising as a result of frustration at government inaction over what at the time was already a serious violent crime problem. The first chapter deals with the Petition that resulted from the murder of Kylie Smith by Paul Bailey.

The next 18 chapters are the stories of 18 victims, starting with that of Kylie. A few of these stories can be found in condensed form in our Victim's Stories section, including that of Kylie. These chapters are an unsettling read, and demonstrate many failings of our legal system, a good number of which still exist today, having not been addressed by this or previous governments.

In a number of cases, the offenders responsible are back in society, and some have reoffended again since release. A few were not even convicted, despite clear and unequivocal evidence of their guilt, and in one case the offender has not been located to date. Again, this is not a book one should read late at night unless you actually need to stay awake....

The second to last chapter covers ACC and the inequities under the ACC system as regards the victims of crime as opposed to offenders. A couple of cases are detailed where offenders have received larger sums than victims. The final chapter, "Where to from here" lays out a plan of action, some of the items in which are now being dealt with by this government, to their credit.

The conclusion of the book sets out a number of goals in relation to things such as life sentences, degrees of murder legislation, parole, and compensation for victims, very much in line with our current set of goals. We still have a way to go before these can be regarded as having been met.

This book may now be almost eight years old, but is still all too relevant to our current situation, unfortunately. Anyone who labours under the illusion that our legal system administers anything remotely approximating justice for the victims of violent crime should read this book - it will provide a short, sharp but persuasive rebuttal to that notion.