The Parole Board freed five-time rapist Michael John Carroll knowing he had the second-highest security classification and had an almost 70 per cent probability of being back in jail within five years, documents show.
Carroll, 44, was paroled in February after serving 21 of the past 23 years in prison. He was placed in preventive detention in 1998, meaning he can be recalled to prison at any time for any infraction.
Yesterday, the Parole Board said Carroll had put himself into a treatment programme.
It is understood the rehabilitation programme includes psychiatric help and strict rules on his movements and access to alcohol. He will join the programme by the weekend.
Should he not obey course rules or complete it, he can be returned to jail.
The Corrections Department applied for a change to his parole conditions which will allow him to be in rehabilitation. That could not happen without Carroll's consent.
The Dominion Post yesterday obtained a Parole Board letter to Carroll dated December 10 last year, notifying him of his release and conditions. It also showed his security-risk rating as being D, the second highest.
Security-risk ratings are set on a sliding scale of A (lowest) to E.
He had the same classification at an earlier parole hearing last June. It also noted he had been a difficult inmate to handle in the early part of his sentence.
The board said: "It has become obvious recently that many of his difficulties stem from shocking abuse inflicted upon him as a child."
It had encouraged Corrections Department psychologist Alex Skelton to address those issues. Mr Skelton, the letter noted, "had made considerable progress in the last two or three years".
Abandoned by his mother as a baby, Carroll had been a patient at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital from about 9 until his mid-teens.
He received a five-figure compensation payout last year for abuse he suffered at the hospital.
- NZPA
Parole Board knew of rapist's high security risk
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