Hastings killer to be paroled and deported

Tevita Noa. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

A Tongan man jailed for the brutal manslaughter of his wife in Hawke's Bay in 2005 has been granted parole and will be deported next month.

Tevita Noa was sentenced to six years, nine months jail in 2007 after fatally bludgeoning his wife Thelma Johanna Thompson to death with a cricket bat in their home in Flaxmere, Hastings, in October 2005.

Noa was denied parole last year but the Parole Board last month decided he would be granted parole.

It said that he had completed a programme for male prisoners of Pacific Island descent who had committed violent offences, and that there were "no issues whatsoever" with his conduct in prison.

Noa's appeal against a deportation order was dismissed by the High Court, meaning he will be deported when he is released.

"The board is satisfied, if he were released on parole to be deported, he would not pose an undue risk to the safety of his community," the board said in its ruling.

It said he would be released in March into the custody of the Immigration Service or police for immediate deportation.

"If your immigration status was to change, parole would be revoked immediately," it said.

The High Court at Napier was told during his 2006 trial that Noa kicked his wife and struck her four or five times with a cricket bat after they argued over her plans to move to Auckland with their children.

The jury was also told about the couple's troubled relationship, and Noa's discovery of text messages and pictures on her cellphone, including sexually explicit images of another man.

- NZPA