This clip, titled ‘Police/Deaf’ screened on ‘Tonight’ on 31 July 1992, two weeks after the emotive documentary broadcast by Television New Zealand, “The Remand of Ivan Curry” was shown on TV1 during Sunday evening, 12 July 1992.
It dealt with the arrest of Ivan Curry in 1998, who was then 21 years old and profoundly Deaf. He was arrested in the New Zealand town of Waitotara for the murder of his 15 month old nephew. He was remanded without bail for the next two years. In the 1990 trial, the jury took only two hours to find Curry not guilty. It was an accidential death caused by someone else.
The ‘Police/Deaf’ footage opens with a shot of Police Commissioner John Jamieson at Kelston Deaf Education Centre, walking to a meeting with the New Zealand Deaf Association to work out better procedures for dealing with Deaf people in custody.
Jennifer Brain, then President of the New Zealand Deaf Association stated that the New Zealand Police should know and follow the law of the Bill of Rights where everyone has the right to be informed, and Deaf people should be informed through an interpreter.
...
