Wrongly convicted trio accept compo 

Three young Auckland women jailed for a crime they did not commit have accepted compensation from the government.

Tania Vini, McCushla Fuataha and Lucy Akatere, who now lives in Australia, were convicted in August 1999 for the aggravated robbery of a 16-year-old schoolgirl in Mt Roskill.

They successfully appealed their convictions on the basis that two principal witnesses had retracted their testimony, and were released after spending around seven months in jail.  They then spent a further five years wrangling with compensation deals.

Their accepted compensation ranges from between $162,000 and $176,000.

The women, who are now in their twenties, had been seeking $1 million compensation, but reluctantly agreed to this deal in March.  It has taken another seven months for the money to be paid.

Their lawyer Gary Gotlieb believes the reason the case has been handled so badly by the government, is because the trio are all Polynesians.  He says the women wanted more but have simply run out of patience.

Gotlieb is disgusted at the government's handling of the situation. 

"Not only did they say, you are innocent, they apologised to them.  And from that background they got such an abysmal offer."

He says it is outrageous to have ministers of justice and attorney generals who are not lawyers.

But Justice Minister Mark Burton says he is pleased the matter has been resolved.

He says the government accepted the girls' were innocent and offered the trio compensation in 2003, but that was not accepted by the women's lawyer.

"They're receiving exactly the compensation plus the expenses that they were offered and entitled to at the time.  I do regret that the decisions of others have resulted in more than three years of delay," says Burton.

The compensation will be paid into their accounts on Wednesday, and the women say most of it will go into trusts.