A Dunedin killer who has spent 28 years behind bars is still not fit for release, the Parole Board says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gareth Lawrence Smither, 53, was jailed for life in 1997 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend 26-year-old Karen Jacobs and though the board acknowledged he had done “all that has been asked of him” while in prison, it was not enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reasons for his continued incarceration, however, remain unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The framework for the ongoing management [redacted] is a central part of [Smither’s] release plan. At present that key part of his plan is missing,” panel convener Neville Trendle said following the most recent hearing in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We fall short of being satisfied that on the basis of the current plan, his release can be safely managed in the community.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1997, Smither stabbed Ms Jacobs 33 times and then attacked her repeatedly with a garden spade \u2013 all while her daughter was in the next room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s body was later found by her mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The board heard Smither had completed various rehabilitative work while locked up, including sex-offender treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had been a minimum-security inmate for several years and had been transferred to Waikeria Prison ahead of a possible release to the North Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Smither\u2019s previous hearing, the Parole Board cast doubt over the adequacy of his release plan but that had more recently been bolstered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man sought release to an unnamed facility after which his accommodation would be managed by a kaiwhakamana (kaumatua who has access to the prison); support which would continue for no less than two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Mr Trendle noted Ms Jacobs\u2019 family maintained their stringent resistance to Smither\u2019s parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They remain opposed to his release as his risk to others should he return to the community is serious and has yet to be sufficiently mitigated,” he said. “They are of the view that he should remain in prison.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smither\u2019s next parole hearing was set for February next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dunedin killer who has spent 28 years behind bars is still not fit for release, the Parole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-38499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38499","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=38499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}