Diane White died when she was attacked by her neighbour, Christine Morris, who was wielding a hammer. Photo / Supplied
Diane White died when she was attacked by her neighbour, Christine Morris, who was wielding a hammer. Photo / Supplied
A woman who bashed her neighbour to death with a hammer told the Parole Board she believed the killing was justified and still shows no empathy towards her victim.
Christine Judith Morris has also been prone to acting aggressively towards anyone she has taken a grudge against during her 13 years behind bars.
Morris bludgeoned Diane White to death in her Frankton, Hamilton, unit after fleeing Waikato Hospital’s Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre (HBC) of which she was a voluntary patient.
Prior to the murder, the 53-year-old - who is now the same age as her victim was - made threats to kill White and ultimately followed through with them on the afternoon of January 19, 2010.
Morris, who is profoundly deaf, was convicted of murder in 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years.
‘Justification of the killing’
Morris’s behaviour behind bars hasn’t been reported on since 2020, so Open Justice sought access to her parole board hearing discussions from 2021 and 2022.
In them, board chairman Sir Ron Young said she showed “no empathy, nor much understanding of her contribution to the murder” but “had forgiven the victim and others that she saw as being associated with the murder”.
“It did not seem to us today that very much progress had been made.”
When she appeared in 2021, Morris “stressed very much” that it was the voices in her head that told her to attack White.
“She also said, however, that Ms White was a horrible person, and it is not an exaggeration to say she showed no empathy for Ms White and to a degree there was justification in what she said about the circumstances of the killing.”
The comments alarmed the board and when questioned about her previous convictions - which include aggravated robbery, assault with a weapon and common assault - she insisted others had, to a degree, instigated that offending as well.
At that stage, she was yet to begin a violence reduction programme and it remained unclear in the most recent decision whether any progress had been made.
Young noted, concerningly, that Morris would now, “from time to time”, take grudges against people.
“She can act aggressively when she takes that grudge... so that issue is an area for rehabilitative work.”
The Frankton block of flats in which Diane White and her killer, Christine Morris, lived. Photo / Christine Cornege
The board considered she was still “very much at the beginning of her rehabilitation” at the time of the 2022 report.
“We consider there are significant and concerning issues that will need to be dealt with in that rehabilitation to reduce her risk.”
Once the rehabilitative work was completed the board would then turn to working on her reintegration and releasing her into “increasingly liberal situations”.
However, that reintegration was “quite a long way away”.
Morris will see the board again in February next year.
‘She’s got blood on her face’
About 10am on the morning of the murder, a Henry Bennett worker faxed and phoned police about Morris’ escape and threats to kill White, but was unable to get through to the local station. She eventually called 111 and spoke to the Police Northern Communications Centre.
At 11.13am two police officers were sent to Morris’ house.
They were unable to find her, but spoke briefly with White as she mowed her lawn, and advised her to call police immediately if she saw Morris. The officers then left.
Shortly afterwards police received a second call from the HBC advising that another neighbour, who was not named, had reported that Morris was with her and was making threats to harm White.
A communications dispatcher mistook the information from this call as a repeat of the information from the first call, and subsequently, no officers were sent.
At 12.19pm the neighbour called police to say Morris had just left her property before calling a few minutes later to say she had returned with blood on her face.
Officers arrived to discover that White had been attacked and killed in her home with a blood-stained hammer found nearby.
Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years before joining the Open Justice team in 2022.
