eligible for parole<\/a> and appeared before the board for the first time. <\/p>\nOn Thursday he appeared before them for a second time, saying over the past year he had learned new psychotherapy \u201cgrounding skills\u201d to be less impulsive or \u201cthink before he acts\u201d.<\/p>\n
When board member Gordon Sinclair asked if he could think of any recent examples where he applied those skills, Murray struggled for an answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a little bit overwhelming, this process,\u201d Murray explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still getting used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair said Murray needed more opportunities to test out these newly learned skills and Murray agreed.<\/p>\n
Another board member Waimarama Taumaunu pressed Murray on whether he still maintained what he said in the last hearing and during his trial, that he had not intended to fatally strike Morris.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
She then asked how his new therapeutic skills related to Morris\u2019 murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was a bit impulsive that night, I acted out of fear for someone that I loved,\u201d Murray answered.<\/p>\n
![\"Police]()
Police guarding the West Auckland scene where Connor Morris was murdered in August of 2014. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n
The psychotherapy he had received had helped his impulse control \u201ca little\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
If he applied the treatment to what he did \u201cthat night\u201d, he would have acted differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have taken a weapon to that place, I would have rung the cops, I might\u2019ve just stayed inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll have to forgive me, but it doesn\u2019t sound very definitive, sir,\u201d Taumaunu challenged.<\/p>\n
He explained when he thinks back to that night, it\u2019s pretty \u201cdeep\u201d and he is overcome with the reality that he hurt Morris and continues to hurt the man\u2019s family. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a hard thing to bring back up and talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Taumaunu emphasised it was \u201creally important\u201d Murray was able to talk about the incident so the board could assess whether or not he poses a risk to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, I haven\u2019t been persuaded,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
![\"Millie]()
Millie Elder-Holmes at the Waikumete Cemetery after the funeral of Connor Morris. Photo \/ Brett Phibbs<\/p>\n
Apart from these new skills, Murray was unsure what reintegration looked like, explaining that this was his first time in prison and he had never been at this stage before.<\/p>\n
His lawyer Jasper Rhodes said Murray was \u201cwell aware\u201d there were still several steps he needed to take before he could be released.<\/p>\n
A prison education<\/p>\n
The board also heard of Murray\u2019s achievements during his decade behind bars.<\/p>\n
He had been focused on his tertiary education, graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree and became a mentor to other inmates, prison staff reported.<\/p>\n
Rhodes said his client had taken on the board\u2019s previous concerns and was doing what he could to address them.<\/p>\n
The reintegration steps were out of Murray\u2019s control and more in the hands of Corrections, the lawyer said.<\/p>\n
Rhodes was looking for a next date before the board, \u201crespectfully\u201d in the shorter rather than longer term, where they could check in on the process.<\/p>\n
A date was made for Murray to come before the panel again next May, as it would take that long for his reintegration plan to be put in place, the board heard.<\/p>\n
Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She\u2019s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the hearing, he was asked what new situation he was most worried about. Murray said being \u201cattacked\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,2372,51369,15118,28164,78,3375,5494,86226,17700,111,43,139,69,1118,47839,2887,6642,3807,1299],"class_list":["post-450692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-board","tag-brawl","tag-connor","tag-fears","tag-in","tag-killed","tag-michael","tag-morris","tag-murray","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-parole","tag-release","tag-tells","tag-west","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450692","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=450692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}