A year on: We must not forget Juliana
Barely a week from the first anniversary of Juliana Bonilla Herrera’s brutal murder, the review into whether her death could have been prevented still hasn’t been released.
Not only hasn’t it been released, it hasn’t been completed, or, from the sounds of it, done much more than ‘‘officially’’ begun. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting to hear from a government agency that has some very serious questions to answer and is dragging the chain in doing so.
If you haven’t forgotten what happened to Juliana, thanks, and I’m sorry there has to be a recap.
In January 2021, the 37-yearold 3-D designer from Colombia was killed by a thing 10 weeks out of prison, having served nearly eight years for raping, injuring and abducting a woman.
Before that attack, it had amassed 27 convictions, including two for assaulting a female. One of those involved hand pressure to the throat.
The Parole Board released the thing with 14 special conditions, assessing it as at high risk of violent offending and moderately high risk of sexual offending.
Juliana, who lived alone, wasn’t told that her neighbouring flat was used as a home for rehabilitating prisoners, nor about what had moved in.
She was worried though, she told friends in the weeks before she was murdered, because the neighbour was always watching.
The thing was, and unlike the Department of Corrections with its review, moved fast.
A week after moving next door to Juliana it searched ‘‘Colombia lady’’ on its phone. On December 8, it bought rolls of masking tape. Two weeks later, the thing searched her name on Facebook and Google. And on January 18, it bought a box of condoms and a pair of latex gardening gloves.
On January 21, it searched pornography and later that night broke into Juliana’s flat, where she both begged and fought desperately for her life, at one point breaking free of her bindings and running.
Ultimately, she suffered 29 sharp force injuries and 51 blunt force injuries in the frenzied attack. Many were defence wounds on her arms and hands.
Less than a month later, the thing pleaded not guilty to murdering Juliana, before changing its tune in September and pleading guilty to murder and abduction with intent to have sexual connection. Sentencing is on February 1.
It’s a sickening timeline but the other one, the bureaucratic one, is just plain offensive. It took Corrections until September 30, about eight months after Juliana’s murder, to announce a review into its existing notification policy; the one meaning Juliana wasn’t told about her neighbour.
Following a series of questions from Stuff, chief probation officer Darius Fagan said Corrections would review the notification policy ‘‘to ensure it continues to support public safety’’.
On October 21, nine months after Juliana’s murder, Corrections told me it was in the process of confirming who will undertake that review.
On November 15, 10 months after Juliana’s murder, Corrections told me the review was ‘‘under way’’, saying, ‘‘while we have identified a preferred person to lead the review, we are not yet in a position to make that public’’.
Then, on January 5, nearly a year after Juliana’s murder, Corrections told me the review ‘‘officially’’ began on December 5, and Dr Gwenda Willis was engaged the next day to lead it. The review is expected to be completed by March 31; if so, that will be about 14 months after Juliana’s death.
A few days ago I got an email from one of Juliana’s friends, reminding me it’s nearly a year since she was killed, asking that New Zealand women be updated on the case, and urging us not to forget her. Her friend called her Julie.