KEY POINTS:
The release of one of the country's worst mass murderers is "some way off yet", the Parole Board says.
Raymond Wahia Ratima killed seven people, including three of his own children, on a murderous rampage in Masterton in 1992.
At a parole hearing late last month Ratima was denied parole, and the decision of the board was made public today.
On June 25, 1992, Ratima, then aged 25, killed his sister-in-law Nicola Ferguson, Bevan Tepu, their child Stephen, Nicola's brother Phillip Ferguson junior, and his own children Piripi, Barney and Stacey.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment on seven charges of murder, 10 years' imprisonment for killing an unborn child and seven years' imprisonment for attempted murder.
"The enormity of his offending needs no further underlining,' the board said in its decision to decline parole.
"It was a matter of widespread public concern at the time and continues to attract significant public interest."
Ratima, now 40, had completed a number of courses and programmes in prison and was generally described as being a compliant and respectful prisoner.
The board met with family members of some of Ratima's victims who did not want parole to be granted.
"Very briefly put, the strong view was that he should never be released. The enormity of his offending and the number of lives that he had cut short, continues to have the most appalling consequences for members of the family who are left."
The board said when Ratima was sentenced in 1992 the judge urged the board to proceed "only with the greatest caution" when the question of parole came up.
It was the board's view that Ratima had a "significant time to go" before any questions of release could be debated.
"Parole is not presently an option," it said.
"Mr Ratima's release . . . is some way off yet."
After the hearing Nelson Tepu, the father of victim Bevan Tepu, said every time Ratima's parole was raised it brought it all back to the family and was very upsetting.
- NZPA
