Source: Radio New Zealand
Nathan Boulter was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison for killing Chantal McDonald. Pool / Chris Skelton / Stuff
Investigators have finished looking into the way Oranga Tamariki received and assessed information from the police about murderer Nathan Boulter.
Boulter was jailed in February for at least 17 years. He attacked Chantal McDonald in front of her children outside her Christchurch home last year.
A specialist multi-agency family violence unit had been unaware about a brief relationship between the two.
The Child Protection Investigation Unit – a year-old part of Oranga Tamariki and independent of day-to-day operations – said it had completed its review and shared it with the Corrections Department.
“This will enable us to identify opportunities for improved communication and collaboration between agencies in the future,” said unit director Peter Douglas.
A unit report to the government in October 2025 said, “The natural justice process with affected Oranga Tamariki staff commenced in the first week of October 2025.”
Corrections had also finished its investigation into what it did and how it communicated with police and Oranga Tamariki over Boulter.
“This will help inform any cross-agency learnings,” it said.
“Once finalised, this work aims to identify opportunities where agencies can better communicate and work more collaboratively.”
It could not say much more as it did not want to compromise any future coronial proceedings or inquiries, Corrections said.
Poor information sharing about cases of serious harm or threats to children has been red flagged again and again, notably in 2022’s inquiry into five-year-old Malachi Subecz’s murder.
The 2022 inquiry’s recommendations to fix this were picked up last year by the Child Protection Investigation Unit – but its investigations had been hampered by the exact same problem, according to its internal reports.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
