Lorraine Kondra (48) is standing by her convicted paedophile brother Colin Trevor Davies, despite being forced from her Christchurch home after her neighbours learned about his application for home detention.
To my ex-neighbours, I want you to know I hold no malice against you. But my friends have been sworn at and abused when they visit me. Rocks were thrown at my home. I have been terrorised and harassed and now I’ve been forced from my home.
I understand that you are afraid of my brother Colin Davies because he is a convicted paedophile – but why me? I’m not a criminal. I’ve stood by Colin but it hasn’t been easy. I don’t like what he has done – but he’s my brother. I love him.
All of this has taught me the true meaning of unconditional love. I am the eldest child in my family. our mum was an ill woman and I looked after her from the age of seven. I literally had to raise my brothers. My other two brothers want nothing to do with Colin.
our drunken father raped me as a child and I suspect Colin was abused too. We have all had problems as a result of our childhoods but I have a strong spirit and have dealt with what happened to me. Colin, however, turned to sexual offending.
To have Colin here with me was a decision we made together and I think the Parole Board would have approved his application for home detention if this hysteria hadn’t happened. I had no idea it would cause so much trouble. I simply wanted to offer him support and a home but now, because of your attacks, he can’t come here.
It’s hard to accept. The law is supposed to protect me and it hasn’t. There’s counselling for offenders, victims and their families, but there’s no counselling for the offenders’ families. That’s so wrong! We suffer too.
Colin knew that if he reoffended, that would be it and he couldn’t come to me for help again. I even said that at the parole meeting.
I know you think you’re doing the right thing. But why couldn’t you have come to me quietly as neighbours and said you didn’t want him living here? We could have worked together to rectify the situation. It could have been done through the parole system and discussed calmly, rather than through threats and anger.
Few of you have taken time to get to know me as a person. I would never do what you have done, because everyone has the right to live in peace. Colin and I have talked about the situation. I will still give him love and support but, for my own safety, I can’t have him living with me. Because of your reaction, I couldn’t provide him a safe home, as required by the Parole Board.
Colin is taking it pretty well and I’ve told him his acceptance shows how he has changed for the better. He goes before the Parole Board again in February but he might be held inside for his own safety once more.
I believe I’m the one person in my family who can help change this terrible pattern of abuse. You are stopping me from making a better life for us. I have cried more in the past few days than I have ever done in my life. I’ve had to tell myself to stand tall and be strong. I am Colin’s sister and I love him. That won’t ever change.
Lorraine As told to Jan Morgan Photograph by John ocCoombe
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