Remorseless baby snatcher to be freed

The man who snatched baby Kahu Durie from her pushchair and held her hostage for eight days in 2002 is to be released from prison this month despite showing no remorse for his crime.

The carefully planned kidnapping shocked the nation and the eight-month-old baby's adoptive parents - lawyer Donna Hall and High Court judge Eddie Durie.

Terence Traynor, now 61, ambushed Ms Hall while she was out walking with Kahu in April 2002. Wearing a balaclava and gloves and carrying a loaded sawn-off semi-automatic firearm, he threatened her before making off with the baby.

Traynor sent a handwritten ransom note to Ms Hall and Mr Durie, demanding $3 million.

Police eventually swooped on the Taumarunui house where Traynor was holed up with Kahu.

He has failed to win his freedom at every Parole Board hearing during his seven years in prison.

However, he must now be freed by law, having served two-thirds of his 11-year sentence.

Traynor will be released late this month to live at an undisclosed location, the Dominion Post reported.

His mother, Ngaire, lives in Lower Hutt. He will have to report to a probation officer, attend any psychological assessments or counselling the probation officer recommends, and is banned from contacting Kahu Durie or her immediate family.

In a Parole Board decision obtained by the newspaper, Judge Barry Lovegrove stated Traynor had "never been prepared to address his offending and has adopted a stance of withdrawal from any process concerned with ... risk assessment".

The board described Traynor's offending as at the "extreme end of the scale", showing a "readiness to inflict major hurt on vulnerable people".

Ms Hall and Mr Durie declined to comment on Traynor's imminent release.

Kahu was returned to her birth parents five months after the kidnapping. Now seven, she lives with her father, Jarmie Piripi, on a farm near Rotorua.

He said he held no fear for Kahu when Traynor was freed. "It was such a dumb move - all that meticulous planning to get Kahu and then asking for a stupid ransom."

- NZPA