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The Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) says it supports the early release of New Zealand's youngest convicted killer on strict conditions, but says they were only imposed after the victim's mother was forced to go public with her concerns.
In a decision released today the Parole Board said it would release Bailey Junior Kurariki next month, saying it is more likely to be safer for the community than releasing him when his seven-year jail sentence ends in September.
Kurariki, who was 12 when he was in a gang that killed pizza delivery man Michael Choy in September 2001, will be released on residential restrictions - the new name for home detention.
This involves electronic monitoring and remaining at a selected location 24 hours a day.
Last month Mrs Croskery told reporters changes to the country's parole laws were urgently needed.
"We do not want another tragedy such as ours," she said.
"Public safety is paramount."
She said on TV3 tonight it was not known whether Kurariki was reformed.
"It just churns you up to know that he's coming out and I'm just so fearful. They say he's reformed but you don't know do you. We can only wait and see."
Kurariki was convicted of Mr Choy's manslaughter after the baseball bat slaying in south Auckland. Since then Mr Choy's mother, Rita Croskery, and others have opposed him being released from jail until the end of his sentence.
SST spokesman Garth McVicar, who has been closely involved with the Croskery family, said they accepted that under current law Kurariki was going to reach the end of his sentence in September but wanted strict, electronic monitoring on him if released early.
"You're better off to release them before sentence end so at least you can put some conditions on him, so we supported that," he told NZPA.
But Mr McVicar said the family had run into a brick wall when requesting those conditions from officials and the board.
"So at the last parole hearing Rita decided that she wouldn't attend that and instead had the media conference in which she publicly announced the requests that she had been making behind the scenes," he said.
" It wasn't until she actually went public with it that she's actually got some traction and it looks like most of those conditions that Rita wanted have been abided by."
Mr McVicar said it was frustrating that the family was ignored initially by the system and had to go public to get some common sense.
Mr McVicar renewed SST's calls to abolish the Parole Board, which he said was surplus to requirements.
He said a better alternative would be for sentencing judges to impose mandatory conditions for the end of the sentence.
" Because the onus is on the victim to go before the Parole Board and argue their case - that's retraumatising, revictimising and just causing added anxiety and stress to the victim."
- NZPA
