Alex Aleti SEU 14/7/2022

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Alex Aleti SEU

Hearing: 14 July 2022

at Auckland Prison by MS Teams

Members of the Board:

Sir Ron Young – Chairman

Ms F Pimm

Mr G Coyle

Counsel: Ms L Tu’i

In Attendance: [withheld] – Case Manager

Support Persons: [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Ms Seu, who is 36 years of age, was sentenced to six years and nine months’ imprisonment on two charges of unlawful sexual connection with a male, indecent assault, and assault to commit sexual violation of males.
  2. Her security classification is low/medium.  Her sentence end date July 2023.  This was essentially a violent rape of a man on two occasions and other sexual attacks on males.
  3. Ms Seu identifies as a female and is a transgender person.  She does have one page of previous convictions, some minor domestic assaults.
  4. When we saw her last in April 2022, she was doing one-on-one work with a psychologist.  There was a possibility of a release to [withheld] which then looked as though it might be a suitable accommodation.
  5. As to the current position, we do not know whether the psychological counselling in prison has been completed, nor do we have any updated report on the psychological counselling.  We will deal with that matter later in this decision.
  6. Ms Seu’s conduct has continued to be good, and she talked about the one-on-one counselling she was doing with a psychologist and spoke very highly of it.
  7. The last psychological report we had from last year noted that Ms Seu was at medium/high risk of sexual offending and moderate risk of violent offending.
  8. Today, counsel sought parole to [withheld] which offers accommodation for transgender people in [withheld].  We think it is too early for parole because we do not have adequate information to make a fully informed judgment.
  9. And so, in the meantime we are satisfied she remains an undue risk.  We ask for the following information therefore:

(1) That Ms Seu provides her safety plan.  She told us today she has a safety plan.  We wish to understand its content and talk to Ms Seu about it.

(2) We need to know a little more about [withheld] which is not a release proposal that we are especially familiar with and some background information about the programmes and what would be available at that residence would be helpful.

(3) We want an updated psychological report which deals with the advances Ms Seu has made in her treatment, what, if any, further rehabilitation may be required, their view of her release plan, and any reintegration that might be appropriate.

  1. And so, all of that will take some time.  We will see her again in November 2022.

Sir Ron Young

Chairperson