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DHB agrees to fresh review of events leading to psychotic patient's rape of Nelson woman

August 6, 2019

The attacker was diagnosed with being in a psychotic state before the vicious attack.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board is set to re-do its review of events which saw a Nelson woman raped by a psychotic stranger.

In September 2017, Sarah Preece was attacked by a West Coast man, Jacob Jensen, who had earlier gone to Nelson Hospital seeking help for mental health issues. 

Jensen left the hospital after several hours and went directly on to commit a random, brutal attack on Ms Preece in her home a few kilometres away.  

The hospital's original review found that Jensen had no risk factors, staff did everything they could and no action was required for improvements. 

Ms Preece publicly described the review as "a whitewash and a cover-up".  

The DHB hasn't apologised for its part in the incident, and following significant pressure it has agreed to reinvestigate the matter.

Ms Preece says Jensen's medical records from the hospital show staff from both the emergency department and mental health team assessed Jensen's presentation as high risk of harm to self or others, and/or high distress.

Ms Preece says the failure to provide Jensen with due care while he was at the hospital has resulted in "severe consequence" for both herself and Jensen.

She says by agreeing to review the incident again, the hospital is finally providing itself and the public of Nelson with an opportunity to identify areas for improvement, and to "consider what factors and dysfunctional institutional culture prevented them from conducting a robust and reliable review in the first place".  

Seven months after the attack, Jensen was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges including burglary, aggravated wounding, sexual violation by rape and two charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection.

He was made a special patient and remains detained in a secure mental health unit. 

Ms Preece successfully applied to have her name suppression lifted in June this year.

She was then able to participate in a TVNZ Sunday programme and be identified in her continued appeal to the DHB for accountability and transparency.  

In a statement, Nelson Marlborough DHB confirms it has decided to re-review the care provided to Jensen when he presented to Nelson ED on 7 September 2017. 

"We are in the process of setting and discussing the terms of reference for this review. It will involve both internal and external parties including consumer representation," said Chief Executive Peter Bramley.

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