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Rouxle Le Roux breach of home detention charge dropped

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 Mar 2019, 10:07AM
Le Roux was due to appear at the North Shore District Court today.
Le Roux was due to appear at the North Shore District Court today.

Rouxle Le Roux breach of home detention charge dropped

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Wed, 6 Mar 2019, 10:07AM

Charges have been withdrawn against killer hit-and-run driver Rouxle Le Roux, who twice failed to answer the door when her parole officers came knocking.

Le Roux is serving an 11-month home detention sentence following the death of teenager Nathan Kraatskow. She was on a learner licence and had been drinking and smoking cannabis at the time of the hit and run.

A condition of her sentence is that she answer the door and present herself to authorities at any given time - but she was charged last month for failing to do so.

Le Roux was due to appear at the North Shore District Court today on the alleged breach but instead the charge was withdrawn - something her lawyer Belinda Sellars QC told the Herald was " the most sensible thing to happen".

Rouxle Le Roux, 19, believes she is being targeted.
Rouxle Le Roux, 19, believes she is being targeted.

Separately she has appeared at the Auckland District Court this morning for a judicial monitoring hearing to see how her sentence is progressing. Details of that hearing cannot be reported.

Ahead of the hearing Le Roux told the Herald she was "fast asleep" on the day that two probation officers knocked on her door on February 12 at 9am.

Later that day on their second visit Le Roux said she was upstairs in the bathroom.

"I didn't hear anything and they never yelled out. When I went downstairs to get my phone I noticed I'd missed a call from my probation officer so I texted, 'Is everything ok?'."

A few days later while Le Roux was at community service - part of her sentence - she was advised by her probation officer she was being charged with breaching her home detention conditions.

"I was told off for not answering the door and not responding to her message, which I did straight away, not hours later as she implied. She told me a letter was sent to warn me officers would be at my house on the 12th. That letter arrived four days later," she said.

"I feel Corrections let me down. I know it was my responsibility to answer the door, but they could've texted - mum and me were both home that day. The curtains were open and so was the sliding door downstairs. I've told them to yell out there's a lot of building going on and it's noisy.

"I have to be home every day, they know when I'm not home because they can track me. 
"No matter what I do or say I feel they are targeting me in a sense."

Sellars said the breach was "harsh" for something that was essentially a miscommunication.

"There is absolutely no question she was at home because an alarm goes off if she isn't. It's not like she cut off her ankle bracelet and went AWOL."

Nathan Kraatskow died in the hit and run last May.
Nathan Kraatskow died in the hit and run last May.

Le Roux had been drinking wine and smoking cannabis before she got behind the wheel of a friend's Mercedes Benz and hit and killed Nathan at the Otaha Valley Rd off-ramp in Albany. The 15-year-old was on his way home when he was hit.

Le Roux has been 'clean' since she completed a CADs (Community Alcohol and Drug services) course in December and hasn't been tempted to drink alcohol or smoke cannabis since.

"I think a lot of people have judged me and think I've been partying up, but that's not the case," she said.

"I've had two drug tests already and I've been breath-tested. In the first month of home detention I would get tested once - and sometimes twice a day - randomly. All the tests have been negative. I don't want to put myself at risk and I'm genuinely trying hard to stay on the right path."

For the past three months Le Roux's community service has involved gardening at the Silverdale marae, stacking books at school libraries and helping people with disabilities at a plastics waste company.

She is proud she's contributing to the local community and is close to finishing the 181 hours of community service left.

This week Le Roux posted on social media to reflect on her remorse and rehabilitation and to explain an earlier post that offended some online.

The earlier post reportedly had a caption that stated "kill em with kindness" and came after a Halloween post last year of Le Roux wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with the caption reading: "Hide your children."

"I get it with the Halloween post people being mad at me. But "Kill em with Kindness" was my way of saying, 'If people are nasty or hate you, being kind is the best way to deal with the negativity'."

Le Roux says she has missed the simple things in life - going to the beach, road trips and having sleepovers with her girlfriends. Every night when she looks at the stars she thinks about Nathan.

"If the stars are out I have a little think to myself about what's happened. I am just trying to be the best person I can and not let Nathan's name go down in vain.

"I want to make something of my life to show people it was an accident and I am truly sorry for what happened to him. When I finish my sentence I am not going to take things for granted. I will enjoy every day the sun is out."

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