Source: Radio New Zealand
The Epuni Care and Protection Facility is upping its security following an absconding incident on 15 March. Google Maps
On a Sunday shortly after midday, a young man at an Oranga Tamariki youth facility enters one of its secure units and disappears from view.
When he reappears on camera a minute later, he seems to be adjusting something under his clothes.
Fast-forward a few hours and he’s captured again, standing outside the secure residence’s courtyard gate, while four young people play basketball inside.
Suddenly, the basketballers make a break for it, the gate opens and they flee into the car park.
A staff member chases two youths through multiple private properties before losing sight of them. The pair are eventually picked up by police.
The young man who appears to have orchestrated the escape, doesn’t leave – he simply watches it unfold.
Documents reveal apparent plot
Oranga Tamariki (OT) said the Epuni Care and Protection Facility is upping its security following the absconding incident on 15 March.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act indicate plans to escape were likely underway by midday that day.
A timeline based on a review of the CCTV footage revealed multiple youths were involved, with one resident getting his hands on a radio and keys to a locked gate.
Oranga Tamariki says it is taking action to improve security measures to prevent this from happening again. RNZ
A spokesperson for OT had nothing further to add from a previous statement by residential services care and protection manager, Karen Gillies, who said the organisation was “looking into the incident to determine how it occurred and consider any lessons we can take forward”.
The documents – redacted in part to protect the privacy of those involved (referred to as young persons A, B, C, D, and E) – track the escape and the response from OT, with a flurry of text messages between managers and facility staff beginning shortly after 7.30pm.
“Po Marie team. Urgent escalation. We have two young people abscond from Epuni. Police notified. It appears that our young person currently staying in the flat has somehow let these two young people out via a courtyard gate.
“We don’t know whether it was already unlocked or whether he has obtained a key.”
A manager responds: “Gosh that’s not good. Was it over the wire or on an outing.”
The facility has two secure residential units, in addition to a non-secure whānau flat where rangatahi (young people) can stay before returning to the community.
A text at 9.24pm said a search at the flat led to the discovery of two keys and a radio.
“Police have not located our missing two yet. CCTV review and key audit being done … kids unsettled this evening with a number of young people now in secure care.”
The CCTV timeline showed young person A – who was meant to remain at the whānau flat – having repeated run-ins with staff at the secure residence.
At 12.03pm young person A heads to where the keys are located in the secure building’s administrative entry.
When he comes back into view, he’s fixing his clothes and upon returning to the flat cameras capture him removing what looks like two sets of keys.
Four hours later, he’s back in the entryway talking to young person B through a door. When staff try to get him to leave, he dodges past them running down to young person C’s room and saying something to them as he’s escorted out.
Shortly before 7pm, a group of four staying in the secure residence (young persons B, C, D and E) start up a game of basketball in the courtyard, with the review noting, “all rangatahi are clothed including having their shoes on”.
At the same time inside the flat, young person A waits for the security guard to finish their checks before heading to the secure facility’s courtyard gate.
In an initial incident email that night, he’s described as “fiddling with the gate, and as we have learnt opening it and encouraging the other rangatahi to leave”.
Things unfold quickly over the next few minutes.
At 6.58pm the basketballers make a break for it running towards the gate, which opens.
Staff in pursuit are captured on CCTV a minute later “shadowing the rangatahi” in the car park.
Young person C escapes the grounds and is quickly followed by young person D who breaks free from staff. An incident report details a staff member chasing the pair through multiple private properties before losing sight of them.
The timeline notes young person E returns to the secure residence with staff, while B tries to evade them before being placed in a “high-level safety intervention hold” – described by an OT spokesperson as a physical holding technique staff are trained to use. The time is 7.02pm.
Young person A just watches, making no attempt to leave.
Later, staff question him about how the gate opened and give him amnesty to hand over anything he shouldn’t have, the review said.
Young person A initially declined to speak, but later admitted he had a radio and two sets of keys in the flat.
According to police, by 7.03pm they’ve received a call about a “vehicle doing loops appearing to be following a teenage boy and girl,” who later turn out to be the missing pair.
At 7.36pm, the missing youths are called in by an OT support worker, a police spokesperson said.
They said the pair were later picked up after a report of a male and female arguing in the early hours of Monday morning.
Facility boosting its security
Summarising the events, OT deputy chief executive youth justice services and residential care Dean Winter said the absconding youths were back at the facility around 4am.
There, they underwent wellbeing checks and were placed in the facility’s secure care unit due to “heightened behaviour,” he said.
“All rangatahi at the residence were supported by kaimahi [staff] throughout the incident,” Winter said.
Winter said CCTV footage indicated young person A triggered the events by “gaining access to gate keys for the residence (along with a radio)”.
“This allowed him to unlock a side gate from the courtyard, and he appears to have encouraged other rangatahi to leave the residence.”
He said it’s unclear how exactly he got his hands on the keys.
“Oranga Tamariki is taking action to improve security measures to prevent this from happening again, including an upgrade of our CCTV systems which was already underway.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand