Killer driver remains in jail

Repeat drink-driver Gavin Hawthorn has again been denied parole despite being regarded by prison authorities as being well-behaved, drug-free and a low security risk.
The former Greytown man is serving 10 years for manslaughter resulting from a car crash in June, 2003, that claimed the life of his passenger, Lance Fryer, 34, of Carterton.
Hawthorn was drunk when the car he was driving smashed into a power pole in Greytown's Main St as schoolchildren were making their way to school.
Years earlier he had been convicted, and jailed, for causing the deaths of Peter Gay and John Kaukau _ two passengers in a car driven by him which was involved in a two-car collision on Moroa Plains Rd, just out of Greytown.
Hawthorn was drunk and a disqualified driver and the crash later resulted in the death, from injuries, of Bob Stevens who had been travelling in the other crash car.
In its latest decision, the three-man New Zealand Parole Board voted not to release Hawthorn as it was not satisfied he posed ''no undue risk to the safety of the community''.
Hawthorn's statutory release date is in June 2013 and the parole board says earlier release depends on him showing he is no longer a risk to others.
Complicating matters is the fact Hawthorn has waived his entitlement to appear before the board for the last two years while he ''dithers about addressing his offending issues''.
Hawthorn, 46, is in prison for the eighth time and despite being described as low security, well-behaved, drug-free and a prisoner who keeps himself busy, has failed to persuade the Parole Board that he understands, or can be brought to understand, what brings him to offend time and time again.
The board was similarly unconvinced Hawthorn understood the seriousness of his past offending or the extent of the community's intolerance of it.
''Unless he takes steps to deal with that, there is good reason to suppose he will continue to offend in familiar style.''
Counting against Hawthorn was his high-risk, untreated issues, his long history of recidivist offending, rapid re-offending rate and a history of breach and non-compliance.
The board found those points counted against community-based intervention, and in terms of prison-based intervention he is ''wait-listed'' for psychological counselling having refused to complete a drug treatment programme.
Judge Barry Lovegrove, who convened the Parole Board hearing, said Hawthorn's case would be considered again next year, as legislation required, but the prisoner had been warned that this could be postponed if Hawthorn declined to be interviewed for the psychological assessment.