Man gets home detention for plot to kill parents

Allan Francis Barlow.

A Tauranga security guard who tried to hire a hitman to kill his parents has been sentenced to 11 months' home detention.

Alan Barlow was earlier found guilty of attempting to procure the murder of his parents.

During his trial at the High Court at Rotorua, video footage showed him trying to arrange the murder of his parents with an undercover policeman.

In the same court today, Justice Denis Clifford said that given the unusual circumstances and the difficult family background, a sentence of home detention was appropriate.

Barlow stood quietly in the dock as he was handed his sentence.

Justice Clifford said the offending was at the low end of seriousness in terms of attempting to procure murder.

He said Barlow came from an extremely dysfunctional family environment and he didn't believe he was a threat to the community.

At Barlow's trial in August, Tauranga detective Logan Nicholas gave the court a run-down of his taped interview with Barlow on December 12, 2013.

In the video Barlow strenuously denied wanting to have his parents murdered after falling out with them over the Invercargill home they jointly owned and financial matters related to it.

Closing the Crown's case, prosecutor Hayley Sheridan told the court Barlow wanted to hasten his parents' death and had provided a floor plan of their home with an X marking where they slept.

"I suggest you will have no trouble determining Barlow's purpose was to get 'John' [the supposed hit man] to kill his parents. If he had come up with the payment he would have had a watertight agreement with him."

At trial Barlow's lawyer Craig Tuck described the family as one that had "gone feral".

The jury deliberated for just 70 minutes before finding Barlow guilty of hiring an undercover police officer masquerading as a hit man.