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Letters sent from inside Auckland Prison by one of the country's most prolific stalkers are being investigated by the police.
Glen Dallas Goldberg was sentenced in 2004 to six years' jail for breaching protection orders and perverting the course of justice.
Now Corrections is defending allowing him to send threatening mail by post - even after being convicted of 191 offences, many of which relate to harassment and intimidation.
During a previous prison term, in 2001, Goldberg sent mail to a Crown witness, with police saying at the time the female was made to feel "like a prisoner in her own home".
Back behind bars, Goldberg, 36, has been sending inappropriate correspondence to two couples, including a letter to a woman claiming he has marketable "compromising photos" of her, taken without her knowledge.
Department of Corrections maintains it could have done nothing to prevent Goldberg's recent writings reaching his victims, but concedes it will now monitor his outgoing mail: "There was nothing in the prisoner's list of convictions that would have provided us with reasonable grounds to monitor his correspondence as a matter of course," northern prison regional manager Warren Cummins said in a statement.
However Goldberg's Auckland High Court file tells another story. He has a long list of convictions amassed since 1987, including criminal harassment, making false oaths, misuse of a telephone, forgery, impersonating police, speaking threateningly, threatening intimidation and sending a letter threatening to kill.
Last weekend the Herald on Sunday revealed how Investigate magazine editor and publisher Ian Wishart was fearful for his wife Heidi's safety after she received a letter from Goldberg telling her there was "payback" coming following the couple publishing details of Goldberg's criminal history.
The Wisharts made a statement to Henderson detectives 10 days ago and an investigation is underway. Ian Wishart said he wanted Goldberg charged and answers from Corrections as to how such correspondence could reach the outside world.
Meanwhile another couple who have received recent correspondence from the Paremoremo inmate, say they fear Goldberg and his gang associates.
"We don't know what to do about it, every three to six months something arrives in the post," the woman, whom the Herald on Sunday has agreed not to name, said. "They are gang-related threats and, yeah, they worry me."
The couple have moved house and changed their telephone number to avoid Goldberg, once dubbed a "social terrorist", from contacting them.
In 2001, Judge David Harvey told Goldberg his actions had hugely disrupted the lives of a large number of people.
"Basically, you have forced your presence ... to annoy, upset and terrorise people who do not want to have anything to do with you."
During Goldberg's most recent sentencing, in 2004, Justice John Laurenson said: "You have in the past been a perpetrator of large-scale, continuing and very damaging criminal behaviour, particularly towards women. Judging by your past performance, there is almost a certainty you will re-offend in the future."
The Corrections Act states staff may only vet prisoner mail when there is a reasonable suspicion that letters may threaten or intimidate the recipient, endanger the safety or welfare of any person, pose a threat to the security of the prison or involve the facilitation or commission of an offence.
* Goldberg faces the Parole Board in September.
