{"id":301683,"date":"2026-02-25T15:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301683\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:54:14","slug":"health-worker-guilty-of-illegally-accessing-ex-partners-medical-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301683\/","title":{"rendered":"Health worker guilty of illegally accessing ex-partner\u2019s medical records"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fact the woman deliberately accessed the agency\u2019s computer system to look at the couple\u2019s health records<\/a> without their permission wasn\u2019t in dispute. <\/p>\n

The only issue Judge Lance Rowe had to decide was whether the woman obtained a benefit, or advantage, during the 33 seconds she accessed the files. <\/p>\n

For the police, Sergeant Mike Stonyer submitted that the search \u201ccame from left field, and was both personal and cruel\u201d. <\/p>\n

The woman had used the information as a \u201cmoral weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the woman\u2019s lawyer, Letitia Smith, submitted that as the search had shown nothing, there could be no benefit.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t look up the system to invade their privacy and didn\u2019t want anyone to find out about what she\u2019d done, including the couple whom she only told what had happened after they knew their records had been accessed. <\/p>\n

Difficult and hostile <\/p>\n

The court heard the woman and her ex-partner\u2019s separation was \u201cdifficult and hostile\u201d. The Family Court was determining custody arrangements and a protection order had been breached.<\/p>\n

The judge noted the woman\u2019s actions followed a report of concern to Oranga Tamariki made by contractors who found her children alone at her ex-partner\u2019s house and a few weeks after the new girlfriend had moved in with her ex-partner. <\/p>\n

The woman claimed the new girlfriend had been a heroin user and she wanted to know if this was still the case.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019d accessed the records in a moment of impulsivity, against the background of a hostile and difficult relationship breakdown. <\/p>\n

She\u2019d only accessed the medical records after her ex-partner, his mother and his lawyer declined to answer her question about whether the new partner was still an IV drug user, she said. <\/p>\n

The woman accessed the girlfriend\u2019s medical records for 12 seconds to look at her lab results. <\/p>\n

She spent 21 seconds looking at her former partner\u2019s file, searching his lab results and his next of kin information. <\/p>\n

But her search was fruitless, something she admitted in a subsequent email to the new partner. <\/p>\n

\u201cDid you actually realise that accessing someone\u2019s records means very little? That there is minimal information gleaned apart from medical tests, of which there were none. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was wanting to see if you were still an IV drug user who was caring for my children, and the information gave me no insight.\u201d <\/p>\n

She also told the court she\u2019d accessed the next of kin page because she was being \u201cnosey\u201d as she wasn\u2019t able to ask him. <\/p>\n

\"JudgeJudge Lance Rowe presided over the judge-alone trial in the Wellington District Court. <\/p>\n

But Judge Rowe found that in the context of an acrimonious separation and the concerns she had about her children\u2019s care, accessing her ex-partner\u2019s details did give the woman an advantage. <\/p>\n

He ruled the information about next of kin was relevant to the care of their children, as this person may step into the father\u2019s shoes or manage his affairs if he was unable to do so. <\/p>\n

Actions were \u2018humiliating and shameful\u2019<\/p>\n

The woman said she\u2019d searched the woman\u2019s file looking for visits to the alcohol and drug service or liver test results \u2013 telltale signs of intravenous drug use. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in her evidence, the new partner denied ever using intravenous drugs. <\/p>\n

She said the woman\u2019s actions had been humiliating and shameful and, as a result, she\u2019d been reluctant to enrol with a doctor or visit the hospital, fearing her records would be accessed. <\/p>\n

But under questioning from the woman\u2019s lawyer, the new partner also said she didn\u2019t remember sending the woman an image of the audit, with the words, \u201cYou\u2019re going down\u201d. <\/p>\n

Accused sought ammunition against her ex\u2019s new partner: judge<\/p>\n

That left Judge Rowe to decide if, by accessing the computer system and obtaining no information, the woman had gained a benefit or advantage.<\/p>\n

Without knowing what information the woman accessed, the judge said he wasn\u2019t prepared to extend the definition of \u201cbenefit\u201d to the absence of information. <\/p>\n

But he did find the woman guilty of an alternative charge, that she intended to access the system. <\/p>\n

\u201cHer purpose of going into the database is to obtain information that she could use in respect to the ongoing care of her children,\u201d he said, adding she had looked at the records to gather information that would assist her in the context of a hostile dispute.<\/p>\n

He said it was clear the woman didn\u2019t approve of the new girlfriend caring for her children and wanted to obtain information or ammunition against the new partner. <\/p>\n

After the hearing, the woman was remanded on bail until her next hearing in May. <\/p>\n

Smith asked that no convictions be entered because her client would be seeking a discharge without conviction. <\/p>\n

A decision on whether to grant permanent name suppression will also be made at the hearing. <\/p>\n

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fact the woman deliberately accessed the agency\u2019s computer system to look at the couple\u2019s health records without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27995,74,3041,8908,1061,10712,96596,165548,112324,165547,3368,42,134,65794,15975,296,19133,3523,43,1118,5502,12886,9090,165546,40,38,41,39,74674,12767,37458],"class_list":{"0":"post-301683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-accessing","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-agency","11":"tag-check","12":"tag-children","13":"tag-claiming","14":"tag-database","15":"tag-druggie","16":"tag-expartners","17":"tag-exs","18":"tag-guilty","19":"tag-headlines","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-heroin","22":"tag-illegally","23":"tag-into","24":"tag-looking","25":"tag-medical","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-of","28":"tag-partner","29":"tag-professional","30":"tag-records","31":"tag-tapped","32":"tag-top-news","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-topnews","35":"tag-topstories","36":"tag-user","37":"tag-worker","38":"tag-worried"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}