The Justice Ministry has had to remove all family and criminal decisions from its website and begun a massive audit of thousands of rulings after documents with suppressed details including from child sexual abuse cases were published online in a “serious” privacy breach.

Sexual violence campaigner Louise Nicholas said the error was “totally unacceptable” and she has called for an apology to those affected by the breach.

“It’s horrifying to know that this can happen.”

Documents publicly available on the district court website seen by the Herald include identifying details of victims of rape and child abuse.

The Ministry of Justice privacy error was revealed during a Herald reporter’s Google search for information on an unrelated historical case.

Ministry chief executive Carl Crafer said the “serious error” occurred despite the existence of a pre-publication checking process designed to prevent the publication of suppressed information.

Three of the public documents found by the Herald were identified as containing suppressed information.

“As a result, an audit of all family and criminal decisions published on the district court website is now under way to ensure that there are no other instances of this occurring.”

All family and criminal decisions have been unpublished while the audit is completed.

Crafer told the Herald the existing processes would also be reviewed to identify how the error occurred and ensure as far as possible that such an error did not occur in the future.

“The audit will check around 2000 judgments and is expected to take four weeks.”

He said open justice was a fundamental principle of New Zealand’s justice system.

To help facilitate this, many court and tribunal decisions were published on a variety of publicly available websites, Crafer said.

“This helps legal and academic researchers, the media and the public understand how and why judicial officers make their decisions and provides an insight on the workings of a court and our justice system.”

About 350 decisions in the district courts' jurisdiction are published each year.

Sexual violence campaigner Louise Nicholas has called for an apology to those affected by the privacy breach. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Nicholas said the ministry needed to apologise to those affected and ensure the breach wasn’t repeated.

“They’ve gone through enough.”

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has been approached for comment.

Labour’s justice spokesman, Duncan Webb, said the breach was a “real worry” because details of victims and people in Family Court proceedings were suppressed to keep people safe.

“Based on the information provided, there is not only a breach of court suppression rulings but also privacy breaches which must be reported to the Privacy Commissioner,” Webb said.

Labour’s justice spokesman, Duncan Webb. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“It is important that the Ministry of Justice has the systems and the resources available to protect victims and others who are involved in the court system.

“Failures like this in the back office can cause very significant real-world harm. The first action should be to understand the extent of the breach and whether anyone is at risk as a result.”

More to come

Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.