Southland<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe was charged with assaulting her after two separate incidents in September and October. Boulter was released on bail and was ordered not to have any contact with his victim \u2013 and to remain at his approved address in Southland. <\/p>\n
To avoid any further contact with her abuser, Montgomerie moved back to Auckland, to her father\u2019s home on Great Barrier Island. <\/p>\n
On Boxing Day, Boulter breached his bail conditions and travelled to Auckland to try and find Montgomerie. On New Year\u2019s Eve he sent her a message saying he was going to take his own life. Four days later he sent a second message threatening to kill her. <\/p>\n
![\"Police]()
Police leading Nathan Boulter in handcuffs from the police launch at Mechanics Bay after his arrest on Great Barrier Island in 2011. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
On January 17, Boulter booked a one-way ferry ticket to Great Barrier Island under a false name. He arrived at 11.30am and made his way to Montgomerie\u2019s father\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
He waited until it was dark and then entered the house and hid under Montgomerie\u2019s bed. <\/p>\n
She was at the house with a male friend, her 7-year-old brother and his friend. <\/p>\n
When Montgomerie and the other man went to bed, Boulter struck. He hit the man on the back of the head with a hard object, continuing the assault when the man fell to the floor. <\/p>\n
Montgomerie begged Boulter to stop and in response, he hit her in the head. He hit the man repeatedly until he was unconscious and then chased after Montgomerie, who had run for help. <\/p>\n
He caught the 21-year-old and dangled her over a balcony by her leg and hair. He dragged her back up and rendered her unconscious by punching her in the back with your fist and kneeing her in the head. <\/p>\n
Armed with \u201ca weapon resembling a thistle grubber\u201d Boulter took Montgomerie from the house. <\/p>\n
Dragged, abused, threatened <\/p>\n
For 15 hours and during a fierce storm, he held Montgomerie \u2013 wearing only a singlet and pyjama bottoms \u2013 in isolated bush. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt times you dragged her across undulating terrain in the bush \u2026 you abused her physically over this period. That abuse included physical attacks and strangulation that led to serious injuries. Your intent in doing so was to cause really serious harm to her,\u201d said Justice Paul Heath Boulter\u2019s sentencing. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter all of that, Ms Montgomerie was able to persuade you to dispose of a weapon by throwing it into a stream and to walk together towards the wharf to escape. Later in the day, searchers located the two of you. Ms Montgomerie\u2019s ordeal finally came to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montgomerie suffered haemorrhaging to both eyes and a brain bleed from strangulation as well as bruising and swelling to her head and body and abrasions to her feet. <\/p>\n
Her friend suffered a fractured skull at the front of the head and bruising and swelling to the rest of his body. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne only has to read the victim impact statements to realise the horrific situation in which they found themselves and the emotional and physical harm that has been done to them. Without seeking to minimise the harm caused \u2026 the physical and emotional injuries to Ms Montgomerie were much more profound. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that what you heard from her has some impact on you in understanding exactly what has resulted from your actions over those few days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Heath said Boulter\u2019s offending \u201cinvolved a pre-conceived plan to travel almost the full length of this country to confront\u201d his victim. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, you were on bail in respect of domestic violence charges that had been laid in Invercargill. It is fair to say that nobody could have foreseen the trouble to which you went to meet up with Ms Montgomerie, in contravention of your bail conditions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou then embarked on what can only be described as a course of conduct over a protracted period of time during which extreme physical violence was inflicted on Ms Montgomerie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Heath was provided with a psychiatric report outlining Boulter\u2019s \u201ccomplex\u201d personal circumstances and diagnosed with \u201cpsychotic disorder\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour symptoms do not meet the criteria for any specific type of disorder. Nevertheless [it is] clear that you have an underlying psychotic illness which has responded positively to a trial of psychotropic medication \u2026 if your psychotic symptoms were to persist, it could lead ultimately to a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a major psychotic disorder. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of taking prescribed medication while in custody, your mental health state is now stable and you do not currently experience aggressive ideation or impulses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Heath said the link between Boulter\u2019s \u201cabnormal state of mind\u201d and the offending did exist \u2013 but remained \u201ctenuous\u201d.<\/p>\n
Boulter wrote letters to his victims but Justice Heath said he was \u201cunsure about the <\/p>\n
degree of insight\u201d the offender actually had into the harm he caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have concerns about your inability to empathise adequately with your victims,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cI am prepared to accept some link between the historical nature of your diagnosed disorder and your offending. There is also evidence of borderline personality disorder with anti-social traits \u2026 I am prepared to accept that the underlying mental condition probably removed natural inhibitions that usually prevent human beings from acting in this brutal and callous way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He held her there for 38 hours and subjected her to numerous assaults.<\/p>\n
In July 2020, he was locked up after visiting a woman\u2019s home, taking photos and, over the course of a single day, calling her 300 times and leaving more than 100 voicemail messages.<\/p>\n
Another woman attacked<\/p>\n
In 2020, Boulter was back before the courts after offending against a second woman. <\/p>\n
The woman was a friend of Boulter\u2019s sister in Southland who he started messaging and soon became obsessed with.<\/p>\n
He became aggressive and threatening, he stalked her, and he threatened to kill her. <\/p>\n
On one occasion, he went ot her home and later threatened his sister that he would return with a sawn-off <\/p>\n
On another occasion, he assaulted the woman and \u201cadvised her to kill herself\u201d.<\/p>\n
Boulter was sentenced to three years and two months on seven charges of threatening to kill, contravening a protection order, assault with intent to injure and causing harm by digital communication.<\/p>\n
He was refused parole a number of times \u2013 including when the board learned he had not undertaken any rehabilitation programmes in relation to his offending.<\/p>\n
But by April 2023, Boulter managed to convince the board that he could be released safety back into the community.<\/p>\n
Parole Board panel convenor Mary More noted Boulter\u2019s \u201cserious\u201d conviction history. <\/p>\n
Alongside the Montgomerie kidnapping and stalking, there were a raft of convictions for \u201cother violence, kidnapping and burglary\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite his dark past, More said Boulter\u2019s parole assessment report stated he had \u201cpositive behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he has said that he is determined not to do this again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The board heard Boulter planned to live with his mother and had the support of his family, that he had \u201cinsight into his mental health\u201d and \u201cknows when he is unwell and the impact on his behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n
More said Boulter \u201cspoke very well\u201d about \u201chis warning signs\u201d, including \u201csubstance abuse and going into an intimate relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n
She noted that Boulter had just five weeks left of his sentence, so if the board wanted to impose any conditions at all it had to grant his release.<\/p>\n
If he served the full sentence, he would leave prison a free man with no conditions or monitoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board considers that any undue risk Mr Boulter poses can be met by way of special conditions,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Those conditions included two months of electronically monitored residential restrictions and taking his medication. <\/p>\n
For six months, Boulter was ordered to live at an approved address, not to consume alcohol or illicit drugs, not to contact any victims of his offending and to disclose all details about any intimate relationship which commences, resumes, or terminates to his probation officer.<\/p>\n
He was not subject to any parole conditions when he murdered the woman in Parklands. <\/p>\n
More to come <\/p>\n
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamat\u0101. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justice Rachel Dunningham remanded him in custody to December 12 for sentencing. The name of the victim was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[90680,4487,34464,3368,5158,1304,4275,15360,89505,111,43,139,69,90681,46728,3367,1961,61,1354],"class_list":["post-131838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-boulter","tag-christchurch","tag-entered","tag-guilty","tag-man","tag-morning","tag-murder","tag-murdering","tag-nathan","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parklands","tag-plea","tag-pleads","tag-this","tag-to","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}