KEY POINTS:
Repeat escaper Arthur William Taylor was yesterday told only he could put an end to the offending that had resulted in him spending most of his adult life in jail.
Taylor, 51, was given an additional four-year jail term, with a minimum non-parole period of two years, for escaping while being taken from prison to a family group conference in central Wellington.
He was also given a concurrent term of one year for his part in the kidnapping of three prison guards who were escorting him.
He will serve the sentences at the end of his present eight-year term for drug and firearm offences.
The High Court at Auckland was told that Taylor had spent 32 of the past 35 years in jail.
He had more than 130 convictions, and had escaped on six previous occasions, twice from prison and four times from lawful custody.
Justice Ronald Young said it was up to Taylor how much more of his life he would spend behind bars.
"No course of any treatment will have any effect on you and your further offending," he said. "That will end when you have decided you have had enough of prison."
On March 22, 2005, Taylor was taken from Rimutaka Prison to a family group conference at Child, Youth and Family offices to discuss custody of his young son.
When Taylor and the guards got out of the van, they were approached by a former inmate, Manu Royal, who was carrying what looked like a firearm, but was an air pistol.
Royal made the guards release Taylor, who then handcuffed two of them together.
Taylor fled and climbed through a roof space in a nearby building, but he fell through the ceiling, landing in a woman's toilet.
A woman in the toilet suffered bruising, swollen eyes and headaches in the incident. Taylor was arrested in a carpark about an hour later.
His lawyer, Chris Comeskey, said Taylor had not once intentionally hurt anyone.
Royal and Taylor's wife, Carolyn, had previously been sentenced to jail for their part in Taylor's escape.
- NZPA
