A teenager who has lost 10 friends to suicide in recent years – and made three attempts herself – has been granted permanent name suppression at her Christchurch District Court sentencing on dishonesty charges.
Judge Tom Gilbert was told that the young former postie, now a sickness beneficiary, had also lost four friends in motor accidents.
Family was in court to support her at her sentencing for theft by a person in a special relationship, unlawfully opening postal articles not addressed to her, and several shoplifting charges. She had pleaded guilty to all of them.
At the centre of the offending was her state of depression, the court was told. Her general practitioner had written to the court expressing his concern, and the woman had told her probation officer at her pre-sentence interview about her three overdoses.
Defence counsel Trudi Aickin asked for the woman’s interim suppression order to be made permanent on the grounds of extreme hardship arising from her mental condition. The 19-year-old has been in hospital since she admitted the charges in March. Her most recent overdose occurred in the last month.
Her thefts had been the result of “muddled thinking” arising from her illness, but she had taken responsibility and pleaded guilty.
The woman worked as a postie for six weeks last year in a Canterbury rural town, which cannot be named because of the suppression order.
Several times, instead of delivering mail, she put it back into a street receiver and it was returned to NZ Post’s delivery branch. When this was found out, she was counselled.
Three times, a cleaner found large amounts of mail dumped in a rubbish bin at a park. He handed it to the police. A lot of the mail had been opened and the contents removed.
On a day in November, the woman dumped a large amount of mail in the town’s domain. Police said there were 121 unopened items and another 21 that had been opened and had items removed. The woman denied taking any of the contents but admitted opening mail containing Christmas cards.
Judge Gilbert said her offending had affected a large proportion of the town’s population who did not get their mail. New Zealand Post’s victim impact report said it was concerned that in a competitive market, the woman had damaged its reputation.
The woman also admitted going to supermarkets or shops at Northwood, Northlands, and The Palms, and committing four thefts.
He noted she had been actively involved with the Crisis Resolution Team about her mental health problems – depression which has precipitated self-harm – which had been simmering for years. Over the last few years she had lost 10 friends to suicide and four others in motor accidents.
She was fortunate to have the support of her family, and with the help of her probation officer she would have a “relapse prevention programme”.
The judge released her on a year’s supervision with special conditions, and ordered her to do 80 hours of supervision. He ordered her to pay reparation totalling $74 for the shoplifting offences where goods were not recovered.
He noted she had no previous convictions and it was in the community’s interest that she would get herself “on the straight and narrow”.
He decided to grant final name suppression because publication would be likely to cause extreme hardship with exacerbation of her mental health issues.
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