Review into publication of sex victims names released

An inquiry into the Justice Ministry's role in publishing two sexual abuse victims' names has uncovered a further nine cases in which the ministry's website published suppressed details.

Justice Minister Simon Power ordered a review in February after two brothers were named on the ministry's website when their abuser's sentencing notes were posted online. The document was removed the following day when the error was discovered.

John Marshall QC was asked to examine what part the ministry played in the publication on the Judicial Decisions Online website, and consider the circumstances surrounding the publication of the names contained in judicial decisions.

In his review released today, Mr Marshall said the website's database contained 1500 sexual abuse decisions, 10 of which were identified as likely to be in breach of the statutory prohibition.

Judgments were sent by judges to the ministry with an indication as to whether they should be published on the website.

Judges anonymised decisions and used suppression orders when appropriate to protect the privacy of parties, flagging cases where there was suppression by inserting a banner at the top of the decision.

Each judgment was checked by ministry staff before it was published to ensure it complied with name suppression orders and statutory prohibitions.

None of the 10 cases identified in the review had a suppression banner or flag at the top.

However, Mr Marshall said the ministry, as the website publisher, had the responsibility to "carefully read and check [the judgments] to ensure suppression requirements were complied with, whether or not there were 'flags'".

He suggested improvements to the publication process for sex cases, including that all such judgments be thoroughly checked, whether or not a suppression order was made.

Mr Power said that since the February incident, the ministry had temporarily suspended publication to the website and had reviewed the training of staff.

"It's clear from this report that there needs to be work done on the policy and memorandum of understanding between the judiciary and the ministry," Mr Power said.

"They need to get together to sort out a foolproof system and I know the ministry is working with the judiciary on establishing appropriate protocols."

Chief High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann had said she would review the issue from the judges' side, Mr Power said.