Family of man who had half his skull removed left out of parole hearing

Parole Board chairman Sir Ron Young has personally apologised to a family after an email error meant they missed the chance to speak at the parole hearing of the man who attacked their son.

Josh Storer, who had come here from England on a working holiday, was thrown down a flight of stairs at an Auckland bar in July 2021 and sustained brain injuries he stills struggles with today. He fell 2.6m, landing on his head and shoulders on concrete. He was in a coma for two weeks and had half of his skull removed and replaced with an artificial mould.

Thomas Nathan was sentenced to two years and five months in prison for the assault and released on parole in July this year.

Josh’s parents, Dawn and Ian Storer, live in the UK. They desperately wanted to attend the parole hearing and had applied to be on the Victim Notification Register (VNR), a system that updates victims on their offender, including upcoming parole hearings.

Young told the Herald the Department of Corrections received their pre-approved application but "inadvertently deleted" it as incoming registrations were being processed. This meant the family was not aware of Nathan’s hearing and was unable to contribute a statement on how severely the assault had impacted Josh and his wider family.

When victims do provide submissions, the Parole Board is required to give their statements "due weight" in their decision-making.

"The parole hearing was meant to be our final chance to express to Thomas Nathan the consequences of his actions and closure for us," Dawn said.

"That opportunity was taken away from us."

Young said staff were "deeply distressed" about what happened, and changes had been made internally to ensure it never happens again. This included automatically filling VNR emails into a central folder and daily checks to ensure all applications had been actioned.

"I am very conscious of the distress the Storers suffered through not having the opportunity to speak to the parole panel about the offending and the impact it has had on them and Josh at the time and subsequently," Young said.

Young spoke with the Storers on October 5 and personally apologised.

"I appreciated the time and fair hearing they gave me … I want to again acknowledge the distress the Storers have suffered as a result of what happened."

No sentencing notes, "poor" parole decision

The Parole Board that heard Nathan’s case also did not have access to the sentencing notes – documents retired professor at the University of Auckland law faculty Dr Bill Hodge described as "critical" for parole hearings.

"You should have a decision based on facts and the sentencing notes and the details of the trial would be the best information."

Young said sentencing notes would have ordinarily been available, but an investigation found the notes had not been immediately typed up after the sentencing. The parole hearing was held around 10 months after sentencing.

The Storers were concerned the information presented to the parole board about the assault was not accurate. Young said the version of events laid out in the parole’s decision were based on Nathan’s description of what happened, including that he was not aware there were stairs behind Josh when he "shoved" him.

In the sentencing notes, viewed by Herald, Judge K Maxwell concluded Nathan had picked Storer up by his jacket and thrown him, and any suggestion Nathan did not know the stairs were there "quite frankly defies common sense."

The parole decision noted Nathan had expressed remorse as soon as he was aware of what happened. In prison, his behaviour was "very good", he was quiet and compliant; he had self-referred for alcohol counselling prior to sentencing and would complete further alcohol and drug counselling as a condition of his release.

In a letter to the Storers on October 6, Young described the parole panel’s decision as "a poor one" that failed to take into account the nature of the charges against the offender and the "facts of the assault on your son as established".

"I have written to the three panel members to advise them of my views on why their decision was a poor one. I will also be meeting with each of them individually to discuss the matter further."

Josh’s recovery: "He remembers who he was"

If the Storers could have spoken at the parole hearing, they would have told the board how difficult their lives have been over the past two years.

They would have said that their son still struggles every day; he struggles with abrupt mood swings, regulating his emotions and outbursts over simple tasks because his frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls reasoning and impulsivity, was damaged.

Josh is back in the UK and although he lives alone, he relies on the help of a care support team and regular visits to a brain-injury team.

"It really upsets him because he remembers who he was and who he is now, but he’s not the same, he’s so different," Dawn said.

Josh is prone to seizures and earlier this year, his father, Ian, found him unconscious on the couch. He was rushed to hospital.

"He’d got dried froth around his mouth. When the ambulance staff got to us, they raced him in and he was straight onto life support."

Dawn said the family appreciated Young’s "sincere" apology but felt it was "too little, too late."

"Apologies have been made and although grateful, we feel that Josh and ourselves have been totally let down by the whole system."

Nathan was approached for comment via his lawyer but declined.

By Julia Gabel