By ALISON HORWOOD
The Department of Corrections gave a notorious prisoner and former Black Power leader leave to jog the suburban streets of New Plymouth in training for a half-marathon.
For several weeks, inmate Kevin Francis Henare Moore, aged 40, has pounded the pavement accompanied by - but not handcuffed to - a prison guard.
Organisers have confirmed that Moore has entered the Daily News half-marathon on October 1, an event which will take up to 1000 competitors outside the confines of the city and into rural north Taranaki.
Sources say the department cancelled Moore's regular running leave from New Plymouth Prison late last week after complaints by several residents who recognised him from his distinctive facial tattoos.
The Minister of Corrections, Matt Robson, was last night demanding answers from the department.
"Given the circumstances, this is inappropriate," he said. "It should never have happened and I have asked my officials for a full report."
Moore, a former Taranaki Black Power president, was last year sentenced to seven years in jail for conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the murder of gang rival Robert Jillings on October 30, 1991.
Jillings, a 22-year-old Mongrel Mob member, was stabbed 14 times on the front lawn of a New Plymouth house in broad daylight.
Moore was tried for the murder and acquitted, but was later accused of getting a witness to lie at his trial.
He was convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in 1998, but the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction, ordering a re-trial in a different city.
This took place in Palmerston North the following year, but he was again convicted. Justice John Doogue told him he had "literally got away with murder."
Moore was also tried and acquitted of murder after a 1988 drive-by gang shooting in New Plymouth.
Residents told the Herald that Moore, dressed in a tracksuit and running shoes, regularly jogged on the edge of the road around central New Plymouth.
He ran with a prison officer, sometimes in the company of two other prisoners.
His route took him past busy shops on Tukapa St and came within 1km of the scene of Jillings' murder.
"It's caused a bit of an uproar," said one shopkeeper.
"Moore looks like a pretty formidable chap and is really conspicuous when he runs."
Ex-gang boss given jail jogging leave
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