After more than 23 years in prison a man who killed an Oamaru woman with an axe then sexually assaulted her daughter is still too dangerous to release.
Anthony Phillip Hitchcock (63) was declined parole last month after the board heard he was still a medium to high risk of violence and sexual offending.
In December 1996, Hitchcock was sentenced to life imprisonment with preventive detention for murdering a 38-year-old woman, and then attempting to rape her young daughter.
The ordeal also included him dragging the girl around her Oamaru home with a cord around her neck.
Hitchcock was one of the first people in the country to be given a life sentence and preventive detention.
The names of the murdered woman and her daughter are permanently suppressed.
Panel convenor and Parole Board chair Sir Ron Young noted very little had changes in Hitchcock’s circumstances from when he was last seen.
“As far as Mr Hitchcock’s reintegration is concerned, matters have not really progressed at all. He has still not identified suitable long-term accommodation,” he said.
“We have previously indicated to him that we would be looking for some form of residential programme if we were seriously considering release.”
The possibility of Hitchcock entering the Navigate programme was considered – the country’s first community-run reintegration unit – but his health problems made him unsuitable.
The Parole Board discussed with him the possibility of returning to the UK since he was a citizen there and not in New Zealand.
Hitchcock said he would speak to relatives there and investigate the possibility of his return.
Sir Ron said the board heard from the family of the prisoner’s victims before last month’s hearing.
Hitchcock – who works in the kitchen at Christchurch Men’s Prison - said he was “very sorry” about the offending.
“He wished that he could turn back time but he could not,” Sir Ron said.
“He understood their view and said that he was constantly reminded of the harm he had done to them.”
The Parole Board urged Hitchcock to work on his release plan with his case manager before his next hearing in November.
