The parents of murdered teen Christie Marceau say the Coroner's report into her death suggests there were "many hands on the knife that killed her".
The 18-year-old was stabbed to death in 2011 by Akshay Chand, who was on bail for kidnapping and threatening to rape her two months earlier.
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Her death prompted a tightening of bail laws - the so-called 'Christie's Law' - which her parents are horrified the Justice Minister is now considering reversing.
Tracey and Brian Marceau wear a piece of Christie's ashes in a locket as a reminder of their fight to expose the justice system failures that contributed to her death.
"There were many hands on that knife that day," Ms Marceau told Lisa Owen on RadioLIVE Drive.
"I can't forgive them for that and I never will forgive them. They can do what they want and try and hush things up, but at the end of the day, they've got to live with what they did."
The 127-page Coroner's report was released on Tuesday. The Marceaus summed up their thoughts on New Zealand's bail system rather more succinctly, calling it "dysfunctional, non-communicative - a disaster".
Coroner Katharine Greig's report details many examples of a breakdown in communication that led to Chand's bail.
It says the deciding judge did not have full information from previous hearings that detailed serious concerns about his bail address being just one kilometre from the Marceaus' house.
Chand and Christie became friends after working at the same supermarket together.
After convincing her he was going to kill himself, she went to his house where he kidnapped her at knifepoint and threatened to rape her.
He was arrested, charged and remanded in custody. His first application for bail was denied, after which he wrote to the court to express his remorse.
His second application was granted by the judge despite opposition from the police, who believed Chand still posed a risk to Christie based on comments he made in an interview about wanting "revenge".
He was bailed to his mother's house under a 24-hour curfew on the condition that he only attend medical or legal appointments accompanied by his mother or aunt. There were no other supervision clauses.
Chand's mother says she wasn't given any information about the terms of his bail, and didn't know it was her responsibility to ensure he was supervised by an adult at all times.
When left alone on November 7, he stormed his way into the Marceau's home and stabbed Christie to death while her mother called for help.
In her report, the Coroner recommends that bail terms be made clear to those living at the bail address, especially in regards to supervision.
She says there may need to be a law change to ensure evidence used to impose a 24-hour curfew is laid out in a same way for every application.
Andrew Little announced in February he was looking into changing bail laws to curb New Zealand's prison population, earning criticism from former Justice Minister Judith Collins.
He says there are too many prisoners on remand who haven't been convicted, adding pressure to a stretched prison population.
Ms Marceau is appealing to the Justice Minister not to relax the bail laws.
"I'm quite happy to actually sit down and talk to him if that's what he wants to do," she says.
"Maybe he needs to talk to people, maybe he needs to get out there and actually see it before he starts making these wild suggestions in the media."
Also cited by the Coroner were health reports that focused more on Chand's likelihood of self-harm than reoffending.
She recommends strengthening court administration to make sure files are up to date, and ensuring health assessors have access to the reasons a judge has ordered a mental health report.
She also recommends that health reports flag any possible limitations (such as not having enough time to carry out a full assessment) and that police pass on any information that may be useful.
For the Marceaus, the report is a turning point of sorts. Christie's ashes have been in a temporary box waiting for what they felt was "someone to be on her side".
They say the Coroner has finally been that person.
Newshub.
