Macdonald denied parole

Ewen Macdonald's estranged wife says she is not surprised by today's Parole Board decision which will keep her husband behind bars for at least another 11 months.

Macdonald, a Feilding farmer, was denied parole after a hearing at Manawatu Prison this morning, with the board saying it was not satisfied he no longer posed an "undue risk to the safety of the community".

It was a decision Anna Guy was expecting.

Ms Guy, who is separated from her husband, is the sister of Scott Guy whom Macdonald was acquitted of murdering after a trial this year.

She said today she would have been surprised if the Parole Board's decision was any different.

She said she spent today with her parents and said it was a "normal day" for all of them.

In denying Macdonald parole, the board said he had "much to do" and would be required to undertake one-on-one counselling with a psychologist.

The board also asked for a forensic psychiatric report to be prepared for his next appearance which would take place in November or December next year.

Macdonald became eligible for parole this month after serving a third of his five-year prison term for arson, vandalism and killing deer and calves on neighbouring Feilding farms.

When he was sentenced in September, Macdonald had already served more than a year in prison awaiting trial. So, this month he had officially served a third of his sentence and became eligible to go before the board.

Ms Guy said she and the couple's four children were now looking forward to Christmas. The kids would be visiting their father in prison before the holiday started.

She was considering how to tell the children that their father had been denied parole today.

"I haven't told the kids about today yet. That will probably be a little bit hard," Ms Guy said.

"At the moment they don't know when he's coming out."

Ms Guy said she wanted her children's lives to be disrupted as little as possible.

"If he comes out he'll be going somewhere else. It's not like he's coming home," she said.

"We need to get on and do our own thing."

The board had informed the registered victim, Scott Guy's widow Kylee, of its decision today.

Mrs Guy is still working with private investigators after launching her own inquiry into her husband's death.

Scott Guy was shot in the driveway of the couple's farm in July 2010.

A submission by Kylee Guy's family at today's hearing said they still considered Macdonald a risk to the community because his crimes were malicious and deceptive, TVNZ reported.

They did not want him to be living anywhere in the Manawatu or Hawkes Bay regions.

 

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