A former probation officer who became the girlfriend of a “serious criminal” 32 years her junior has been sent to jail after trying to persuade his rape victim against giving evidence.

Linda Grace Kelly, 71, is a former probation officer and rehabilitation programme facilitator who was once awarded a seven-year good conduct award by the Department of Corrections. She has a master’s degree in psychology.

Linda has also worked in a law office as a legal executive and according to her LinkedIn profile was for some months an executive secretary to former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon.

For the past seven years, she has been in a relationship with Earl Strathern Campbell, 39, whom she met while working at Waikeria Prison.

Earl is described by the Napier Crown Solicitor, Steve Manning, as “one of the most serious criminals in this district”.

Guilty of ram-raid

Earl is awaiting sentence for the kidnap, rape, sexual violation and strangulation of a 15-year-old girl.

He has also been found guilty of the early-morning ram-raid burglary of an ATM machine containing $19,800, which he took from a Napier sports centre.

The girl was sitting in the passenger seat of a van when Earl crashed it through the Pettigrew Green Arena’s glass doors in September 2020.

According to evidence given at his High Court trial this month, Earl took the girl to a motel the next day, when he raped, choked and violated her.

This week, the Napier District Court was told that in April 2023, after Earl had been charged, Linda conspired with two other people to meet the girl, who was by then 17, to persuade her to change or withdraw her evidence against him.

A van driven by Earl Campbell crashed through the doors of the Pettigrew Green Arena in Napier early on November 8, 2020.

Linda was later charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice for her part in the meeting, having discussed it with Earl earlier, attended the meeting and debriefed him afterward.

Linda, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty and was sent to jail for two years and five months.

The two other people involved in meeting the girl have been sentenced to home detention.

One was an associate of Earl's, William Horne, 49.

The third person at the meeting was a woman who cannot be named as it may lead to the identification of the victim, who has statutory name suppression.

Linda discussed meeting the girl with Earl in phone calls to the prison where he was on remand or when visiting him in person.

Historical figure’s name used for ‘legal adviser’

Some of the phone conversations were recorded by prison authorities, except at least one which was deemed privileged after Earl claimed it was from his legal adviser, whom he told officers was named Eva Braun.

Despite the obviously fictitious name, the phone call was put through.

Eva Braun was the mistress of Adolf Hitler and died with him in 1945.

Linda appeared as the “McKenzie friend”, or non-qualified courtroom assistant, to Earl in another, previous trial.

Meeting with girl lasted about an hour

On April 24 last year, Linda travelled from her home in Te Awamutu to Hastings to attend the meeting with the girl, who did not know she was coming.

Court documents say that over an hour the three adults exerted “emotional pressure” to dissuade the rape victim from giving evidence against Earl at his trial.

At one point during the meeting, Linda left the room and spoke to Earl on the phone.

“You were putting pressure on her,” Judge Bridget Mackintosh told Linda in court.

She cited the “bravery” of the young woman who did not give in and gave evidence against Earl at his trial.

Linda Kelly's LinkedIn profile says she was once a secretary for Sir Robert Muldoon. Photo / NZME.

Judge Bridget says Linda's offending was “a significant and determined example of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice” by applying pressure to a teenage rape victim.

“This kind of behaviour does require denunciation,” she says in handing down the 29-month prison sentence.

Linda gave alibi evidence at Earl's trial, saying she was with him at home on the night of the ram-raid, and was with him at the motel on the night the Crown says he raped the girl there.

The trial jury did not believe her. Manning says the evidence was false.

Linda has says the girl lied about her ordeal and was “infatuated” with Earl.

“I have my suspicions that is what your situation is,” Judge Bridget told Linda.

The judge says Linda did not appear to be remorseful at all, although the defendant had accepted that she should not have met the girl and that this was “unprofessional”.

“It was more than that, it was criminal,” Judge Bridget the sentencing outcome.

“This type of offending strikes at the very heart of our justice system and was a serious attempt to dissuade a fragile and vulnerable victim of serious sexual offending,” says the officer in charge of the case, Detective Sergeant Darren Pritchard.

“This sentence denounces this type of behaviour and we are very pleased with this outcome,” Pritchard says .

Earl Campbell’s father, Ricky Campbell, has been found guilty of kidnapping, by allegedly locking the girl in a room at his house, and being an accessory to the burglary after the fact by using grinders to open the stolen ATM.

He and Earl Campbell will be sentenced on August 30.