No parole for longest jailed prisoner

File photo / NZ Herald

New Zealand's longest serving prisoner Alfred Thomas Vincent has been declined parole, with the Parole Board saying the high risk he presents making his chances of ever being released bleak.

Vincent, 73, is in his 44th year in prison. The Parole Board says he has an "enormous" history of sexual offending.

"On his own admission, more than 100 children were abused by him in the past," the board said in its decision from a parole hearing held on May 31. There was no proposal for release put forward.

The board said Vincent presented at his hearing as "very pleasant to us".

"He was well-dressed and alert. He describes himself as being very happily situated at the present time. He works in the nursery. He obviously enjoys that. He is keeping well. He has a problem with one eye and he is partly deaf and takes an inhaler for some breathing problems, but otherwise describes himself as well.

"The psychological report we have assesses him as at high risk of re-offending.

"In the psychological report the psychologist comments, 'It appears increasingly unlikely that Mr Vincent will be released'.

"That seems to be perfectly true. The psychologist goes on to talk about his wellbeing and the need for him to be humanitarily cared for in prison. It is clear that is happening.

"Escorted outings may very well be part of that in order to keep Mr Vincent aware of the community which he left so many years ago and also as an ordinary humanitarian effort to allow him to consider himself part of the communities of this country."

The board would consider potsponing further parole hearings the next time it saw Vincent.

"It does seem increasingly unlikely that he will be released, but at some stage a further assessment of his risk will be important."