Parole Board has 'blood on its hands' after Paul Wilson killed Nicole Tuxford, say family of victim

Groomsman Paul Wilson, left, with newly married couple David Bain, right, and Liz Davies, centre, after their wedding ceremony in Christchurch. Photo / Supplied

WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT

The Parole Board has "blood on its hands" for letting murderer Paul Wilson out of prison only for him to kill again, say the family of one of his victims.

The double killer savagely raped and murdered a young Christchurch woman last year in a chillingly similar way to how he killed an ex-girlfriend 24 years earlier.

Paul Pounamu Tainui, aka Paul Russell Wilson, 55 - who was a groomsman at David Bain's wedding - had spent eight hours waiting for 27-year-old Nicole Marie Tuxford to arrive at her Merivale home last April before launching his attack.

He was today sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years after earlier pleading guilty to the life coach's rape and murder.

He will be at least 83 before he can even be considered for a release from jail.

It came 24 years after Wilson also murdered his former girlfriend Kimberly Schroder in Hokitika.

News that Wilson had committed a second murder proved too much for Schroder's father.

Gary James Schroder, 67, died in a suspected suicide just hours after Wilson made his first court appearance on April 10 last year.

Nicole Tuxford was killed in her Merivale home in April last year. Photo / File

Today, the families of Tuxford and Schroder criticised the Parole Board and the latest sentence handed out to the double murderer.

Schroder family spokeswoman Jenny Keoghan said the board had blood on its hands after releasing Wilson only for him to kill again.

"We hold the Parole Board fully accountable for what has happened, there was a complete injustice done back then," she said.

"They should have blood on their hands for that."

After Wilson last year admitted killing again, the Parole Board commissioned an independent review into whether it had made the right decision in 2011 to release him from prison on life parole.

Parole Board chair Sir Ron Young said the review had "found proper process was followed, a stepped path to parole occurred, and reasonable decision-making by the New Zealand Parole Board in the case of Paul Wilson (Tainui)".

Groomsman Paul Wilson, left, with newly married couple David Bain, right, and Liz Davies, centre, after their wedding ceremony in Christchurch. Photo / Supplied

He said he had also met with Tuxford and Schroder's families to express his "profound sympathy".

However, Schroder said the report was "not worth the paper it is written on".

He should never have been released because "there were far too many red flags" showing up in reports written about him at the time he applied for parole, she said.

She also worried that today's sentence - in which Wilson cannot be considered for release from prison again until he is 83 - left the door open for him to possibly kill again.

"What we wanted was that he never see the light of day again," she said.

"You could argue that in 28 years, maybe he mightn't be around, but then maybe he might."

Jess Tuxford speaks at the sentencing hearing. Photo / Dean Purcell

Tuxford's sister Christine Tuxford said her family also felt justice had not been served.

"We were hoping this might have been the first time where they say, 'you know what lock him up and throw away the key'," she said.

Tuxford's mother Cherie Gillatt, however, said the police had done a great job in getting the conviction they did.

Detective Inspector Darryl Sweeney from the Christchurch police said although police had stopped Wilson at a drink driving checkpoint on the night he committed the murder, a review had found they had no reasonable grounds to hold him in custody.

Wilson had also seemed calm during the stop, he said.

"There is no accurate factor that can predict human behaviour," he said.

Wilson appears at his sentencing hearing. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wilson had spent the past few years living and working in Christchurch.

He had been living in a tidy, red-brick townhouse in the Aranui area of the city.

He left at around 6am every weekday for his job at a scrap metal merchants on the other side of the city.

His 27-year-old victim Nicole Marie Tuxford had just embarked on a new career as a life coach and spiritual guide when she was killed at her home in the upmarket Christchurch suburb of Merivale, near Hagley Park, on April 7 last year.

Tuxford had been training for two years with the Phoenix Light Foundation to become a life coach.

The High Court at Christchurch heard how Wilson and Tuxford had known each other for about a year before the murder.

Victim statement from victims partner Clay Saunders, supported by Jess Tuxford, Nicole's sister. Photo / Dean Purcell

They had socialised together in the same circles and Tuxford told her mother that she "felt sorry for him" and wanted to help him out with some life coaching.

But early last year, Wilson said he wanted a sexual relationship.

Tuxford's life coach suggested that she pull away and reduce contact with the man.

On March 24, she invited him over for a chat and a drink for a set period of 90 minutes.

Wilson told her he wanted to spend more time with her but she made it clear that it would only be for that timeframe.

Two days later, he sent her a text message saying that he'd found out she was in a relationship with another male and that he felt "p***** off" and lied to.

On April 6, Tuxford stayed at her partner's house across town.

Meanwhile, her killer spent the night drinking at his local bar.

At around 9pm, he drove to Tuxford's house. She did not reply to his text messages or pick up his calls.

On the way, Wilson was stopped by a police booze bus and failed a drink-drive test.

Police took his keys and he was issued a court summons. He was not allowed to take with him two large knives locked in the car's boot.

Wilson got a taxi to Tuxford's house.

He lay in wait for eight hours overnight before she got home at around 7.40am.

As Tuxford entered her Exeter St home, the convicted killer pounced on her.

Her screams were heard by neighbours as he overpowered her and took her captive in a spare bedroom. He pulled the curtains and shut the door.

An electrician then turned up for a scheduled appointment and walked around the house trying to see if anyone was home.

Tuxford tried to fight him off and bite him, while he punched her in the face.
Trying to silence her and keep from raising the alarm with the electrician, who could hear muffled noises coming from inside the house, Wilson gagged her with the scarf.

He raped her, then strangled her, breaking her thyroid cartilage, before he cut her throat multiple times with a large knife, "almost severing her head from her body", the court heard.

The killer took off in her car, wearing one of her hats.

He then had a medical event or seizure and crashed nearby. Unresponsive, he was taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, the electrician returned to the Exeter St house, worried about Tuxford.

He climbed in through a window and found her dead on the floor.

The electrician phoned police and they caught up with the man at Christchurch Hospital, where he admitted the killing.