‘I was scared... once I gave birth’

The ministry insisted it didn’t know that a staffer it hired was facing an assault allegation – but the complainant had rung them and told them. Kelly Dennett reports.

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has apologised and walked back from its insistence it had no idea it had hired a staffer who was under investigation for rape and assault. It’s admitted that the complainant, a Work and Income client, phoned its contact centre to inform them, and ask for assurance her information was protected.

MSD hired Dean Francis Brosnahan in early 2020, after he’d left his previous role at Oxygen Property Management in Wellington under a cloud, accused of inappropriately contacting a tenant, striking up a relationship and then lying to her about having had a vasectomy.

The woman fell pregnant after which Brosnahan assaulted her and urged her to ‘‘kill the baby’’.

The woman complained to Oxygen – Brosnahan left the company – and the police. Police began investigating in late 2019 but failed to alert MSD when it applied for a police vet.

Brosnahan this year pleaded guilty to an amended charge of indecent assault, and a representative charge of assault, and was sentenced to community detention and community work. The Sunday Star-Times revealed Brosnahan had also been subject to an investigation at his previous job at the Department of Corrections, following complaints from three women of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour.

MSD’s Wellington regional manager Jamie Robinson, backed by Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, had strenuously denied it had any knowledge, or opportunity to find out, about the criminal investigation into Brosnahan. The police vet had returned ‘‘incomplete’’, indicating information was pending. Meanwhile, Brosnahan was working.

The ministry learned of the allegations after disclosure from Brosnahan’s lawyer after he was charged with rape. Robinson previously said ‘‘MSD acted on all information about Mr Brosnahan as it came to hand’’.

However, the complainant contacted the Star-Times, disclosing that not long before giving birth and after learning of Brosnahan’s new job, she had phoned Work and Income, concerned that Brosnahan may have access to her private information.

She was still living in the property that Brosnahan had helped her secure, and she was worried for her safety. She disclosed the police investigation.

Robinson confirmed details of that call had been located.

‘‘We would like to apologise to [the complainant]. We can see from our notes that she called our contact centre on March 18, 2020. The file note says: ‘‘CL [client] says that she was assaulted and that she is concerned about privacy of her file.’’

The call was relayed to the integrity team, Robinson said, which ran a check that afternoon and confirmed Brosnahan had not accessed her files.

‘‘However, no-one got back to [the complainant] at that time to let her know this.

‘‘Someone should have got back to [her] to let her know there had been no breach of her privacy. It must have been worrying for her not to have assurance on this.

‘‘After [the complainant] contacted us again in July 2021, I rang her personally, given the seriousness of what she had raised, to assure her that her files had not been accessed by Brosnahan. Her comment about an assault by Brosnahan was not passed on for follow-up with her, and it should have been. If I had been made aware of the assault claim at the time, employment advice would have been sought about raising this with Brosnahan and the police.’’ The complainant was unimpressed with the apology.

‘‘I’m disappointed ... I made them aware of what was going on, and I was scared to update my details [of my new child] once I gave birth.’’ Of the phone call, she said it felt like Robinson was reading from a script: ‘‘There was no apology, and all they said was, ‘no-one that isn’t meant to be in your file has been in your file, and that’s all they would say.’’’ Brosnahan met the complainant at a property viewing that she said he told her he had made especially for her. She says shortly afterward he contacted her on social media, claiming they had previously connected on a dating site. The woman said she had no memory of this, but given Brosnahan’s power to be able to help her secure a home – she was a single mother of one at the time – she was friendly.

She agreed to have sex as he had assured her he’d recently had a vasectomy. She didn’t want to have more children. She became suspicious the day after the encounter when he kept repeating that he was worried she was pregnant.

The case was the country’s first successful prosecution of someone convicted of a sexual crime based on a lie about a vasectomy – in April a man was convicted of ‘‘stealthing’’ after removing a condom without consent.

Following publicity, Brosnahan’s victim was concerned to see commentary online, where people suggested the child wasn’t Brosnahan’s. She’d had DNA taken.

She said her life had changed as a result of Brosnahan’s crime. She’d been forced to give up work to care for her two children, and was in debt. Despite being ordered to pay reparation nearly immediately after the sentencing, Brosnahan had taken weeks to transfer the money, she said.

The complainant said she had struggled with Brosnahan’s continued denials of the offending, and his lack of apology.

MSD’s apology was the second from a Crown agency in as many weeks, after Corrections also said sorry after records relating to its investigation into Brosnahan went missing, after being incorrectly filed.