Tracey says that if the claim was successful \u2013 it was initially upheld by the Victims\u2019 Special Claims Tribunal but then turned down by the courts on appeal \u2013 the proceeds would have gone to the victims\u2019 rights movement that supported them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never was about the money,\u201d Tracey says. \u201cIt was to set a precedent for victims facing loss and grievance, and the issues are about what support there is for victims.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely feel that justice hasn\u2019t been served, and it\u2019s a very disappointing decision,\u201d she says. \u201cThe New Zealand justice system needs a big makeover.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a huge toll on my mother, on her health, mentally and physically. Our mother was broken-hearted, yet she stayed strong and courageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had a huge impact on our wh\u0101nau, and it still does to this day,\u201d says Tracey, who left Hawke\u2019s Bay 23 years ago, struggling amid the daily reminders, and the anxiety attacks she suffers as a result.<\/p>\n
Aged 13 at the time of the killing, she shared the \u201cspecial bond\u201d of a young teenager growing up with an older teenaged sister. <\/p>\n
She could talk with Colleen about things she couldn\u2019t with anyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hardly go back to Hawke\u2019s Bay any more, and I stay no more than three or four days,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven 39 years later I have days where I sit and wonder what it would be like, I still find myself grieving, and I break down and cry and wish that she was still here.\u201d<\/p>\n
She thinks of her own children and grandchildren, and how her sister never got to enjoy those experiences, because it was \u201ctaken away\u201d by the killers.<\/p>\n
Her brother Christopher, who also no longer lives in Hawke\u2019s Bay, wasn\u2019t born when Colleen\u2019s life was taken, but came to know the recurring nightmare his mum and the family went through whenever the subject came up.<\/p>\n
They had a brother, Joseph, who died in a car crash in 2003, and their mother helped raise numerous other children.<\/p>\n
He says he never saw his mother heal or have closure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a case of trying to find a sense of closure,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty disappointing to see the court take the side of the prisoner again.\u201d <\/p>\n
They believe it\u2019s been beaten on a point of law, and legal experts have suggested to Hawke\u2019s Bay Today it will now take changes in the law to enable victims in the situation their mother was in to be able to sue.<\/p>\n
Ida Hawkins, who passed away in 2024 without seeing the outcome she wanted for victims, pictured with husband P\u0101rau in 2005.<\/p>\n