Parole declined: Christchurch’s Edgeware Rd murderer Lipine Sila to stay behind bars for a ‘long, long time’

In 2007 Lipine Sila murdered Hannah Rossiter and Jane Young and caused grievous bodily harm to eight other teens when he drove his car through a crowd outside a Christchurch party.

He was sentenced to life in prison and today became eligible for parole. He was denied.

The Parole Board heard the killer was “deeply sad” about his offending – but had made little or no progress in his 17 years behind bars, racking up almost 100 incidents of bad behaviour and violence including an “ugly” assault on a guard in February.

Senior journalist Anna Leask reports.

Hannah Rossiter (left) and Jane Young were killed when Lipene Sila drove his car into them at a party.

Lipine Sila has been in prison for almost two decades – but has barely changed since the awful night he mowed down the group of innocent teenagers outside a party on Edgeware Rd, Christchurch.

He looks older, but he is certainly no wiser.

He is still a maximum-security inmate, has not done any significant rehabilitation work and has issues with impulse control and anger.

He has chalked up 66 incidents on his prison record as well as 33 misconducts.

Many of the infractions involve violence.

“Now you’ve had 17 years to think about it, why did you drive the car into the group of young people and kill two and injure so many?” Parole Board chair Sir Ron Young asked him.

“It was not a deliberate act to kill anybody,” Sila said.

“I had tried to manoeuvre the car away from the crowd ... there was very much no intention to hurt anybody.

“I feel deeply sad deep within my heart ... I regret the impact of what I have done on the victims’ families. I have a lot of sadness when I think about my dad, my mum and the impact it also has on my siblings.”

The horrendous offending happened outside 95 Edgeware Rd, the scene of a birthday party that rapidly raged out of control.

As police donned riot gear and readied themselves to disperse the hundreds of people at the property and on the street outside, Sila got behind the wheel of a car.

He and his brother Ben had been involved in fights at the party.

Sila would later claim he was scared for his life and was trying to get away from people attacking him.

He drove the car at full throttle and maximum acceleration, reaching at least 60km/h by the time he ploughed into a group of people.

After he hit them, he didn’t stop.

He was arrested at his family home the next morning.

By then Hannah and Jane were dead and eight others were fighting for their lives or being treated for severe injuries.

A jury found Sila guilty of murder and in 2008 he was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Sila could not explain why he was asking for parole but indicated he wanted to be released and move back to Samoa, where he was born.

After he was sentenced a deportation order was made, meaning when he is eventually released he will be immediately removed from New Zealand.

He told the Parole Board he wanted to return to the village where he grew up, live with family and work on their plantation.

But his wish was not even close to granted when the board considered all the information provided about him.

Sila claimed prison was “so hard” for him.

“I try to watch my behaviour,” he said. “But I don’t get much help.

“I assault people, I don’t listen ... I have a lot of anger ... I put my hands out for help ... I understand that I need to help myself ... I try to help myself but then there’s another accident and it makes me angry, frustrated.”

Sila told the board he wanted to get out of maximum security into a less secure part of the prison, participate in rehab programmes and earn the chance to work outside the wire.

While the rehab programmes were a must, there would be no reintegration work or temporary releases, given the deportation order.

Floral tributes to Hannah Rossiter and Jane Young at Edgeware Road in Christchurch. Photo / Jeab Thongvanit

The board heard Sila was seeing a psychologist once a week.

He was nowhere near addressing his offending, however.

“For now we have stopped talking about my upbringing and crimes, we are talking about how to get out of high security,” he said.

Young asked Sila a series of questions at the hearing.

“Do you think about what you did?”

“Yes,” Sila replied.

“Can you describe how you feel about that now?”

“I have served 17 years and at times I can’t seem to get to a stage where I can completely forgive myself ... it’s about time that I took ownership of what I have done,” said Sila.

“What do you mean when you say ‘take ownership’?”

“Umm ... I guess I put myself here ... in my culture, it’s important for me to respect and honour those people who passed away and for me to change and own up to my mistake.”

The Corrections officer who oversees Sila in prison said he had been “very good” since he arrived in his current unit in mid-March.

He was working – an opportunity only inmates with good behaviour were afforded – and was “motivated”.

Sila acknowledged his anger problem, that he had difficulty communicating and had no consequential thinking.

He said he was working on “slowing down” when his rage increased and considering what would happen if he lashed out.

He admitted that, when he assaulted a prison guard in February, it was because he was frustrated at the guard.

The incident had earlier been described as “ugly” and “an attack” by another Parole Board panel member.

“You had plenty of time to slow down and think – and then you deliberately and out of the blue attacked the prison officer,” he put to Sila.

“I got angry and I gave him a slap,” Sila said.

Parole Board chairman Sir Ron Young. Photo / Stuart Munro

Young asked Sila why he wanted parole.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“We can only release you if you’re no longer an undue risk – and to reduce your risk you’ve got to show that you can do your rehabilitation seriously,” Young explained.

“And you’ve got to show us you’ve learned from your rehabilitation by your conduct in prison.

“At the moment you haven’t even started your rehabilitation ... what we’re trying to do at the moment is help you behave properly. Do you understand that?”

Sila answered: “Okay.”

“So do you understand you’re a long, long way away from any release from prison?”

“Okay”.

“The first part is showing you can behave really well – no misconducts over quite a long time,” Young continued.

“The next stage is starting rehabilitation. The rehabilitation will take a long time.”

Sila listened but did not express any feelings about what was being said.

“You killed two people and you injured a lot of people really seriously,” Young said. “Do you understand that?

“So there will be a lot of work needed to try and make sure you don’t do anything like this again ... we are likely talking about years before you will have finished this work. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” said Sila.

The Parole Board panel took a short break to consider its decision.

After several minutes, Young was ready to address Sila.

“Mr Sila, a lot of the board think you’re quite a long way from release,” he began.

“So we are going to see you in May 2026 – that’s two years.

“During that time, you need to complete your treatment with the psychologist and get your security classification down – and no more misbehaving.”

Sila said “Okay” before the hearing was adjourned and he was taken back into the prison.

Anna Leask is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 18 years with a particular focus on family violence, child abuse, sexual violence, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz