Wairarapa killer flees abroad

Murderer and paedophile Phillip John Smith fled the country using a passport taken out in his birth name.

Interpol has joined the hunt for escaped Wairarapa murderer and paedophile Phillip John Smith who has fled New Zealand for Chile.

Police say Smith, 40, fled the country on Thursday using a passport taken out in his birth name of Phillip John Traynor. He was on temporary release at the time from Springhill Prison near Huntly, where he was serving a life sentence for the 1995 knife murder of the father of a 12-year-old boy he had indecently assaulted after earlier meeting the family in his hometown of Carterton.

Smith had stalked the family of the man after they fled from Wairarapa to Johnsonville when the abuse of his son was exposed. He hid a gun on a nearby property, and returned the following week to wait three hours in a laundry after cutting the telephone lines before breaking into the house in the middle of the night and stabbing the boy's father to death.

Court of Appeal judge Justice Tipping later said Smith had "psychologically tortured" the victim's wife after stabbing her husband 19 times, holding her at knifepoint so she could not get help for the dying man.

Masterton Police Senior Sergeant Jymal Glassey told the Wairarapa Times-Age an alert had been raised early yesterday about the possibility Smith could attempt a return to the region, although it was confirmed later yesterday he had boarded a flight to Chile.

Police say Smith, who ahead of his life sentence had amassed a criminal history including convictions for blackmail, fraud, escaping custody, illegally having a firearm, the firebombing of a Greytown house and assault, could have had "outside help" to escape the country.

The alarm was raised on Sunday about Smith's non-appearance at an Auckland address.

A Wellington newspaper reported that while New Zealand has no extradition treaty with Chile, the United Kingdom does, meaning New Zealand may still be able to pursue him. Corrections national commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot said while Smith was declined parole, he was approved for overnight temporary release. Since March, he had completed five three-night temporary release stints.

In the 12 months before his March parole board hearing, he had successfully completed six one-day temporary release stints.

A relative of the man Smith murdered said it was "devastating" to realise he was on the run and told Radio New Zealand some members of her family had gone into police protection.

"My family is frightened, they're not in a good space at all. We just want him caught and this should never have happened, never," she said.

"I've spoken to one of my family who has been put in protection. They're extremely worried, this has upset their whole life yet again ... it's not right."

The woman said the family member who Smith had indecently assaulted was not in New Zealand anymore, but was told last night that Smith was on the run.

The circumstances of Smith obtaining the passport under the name Traynor and making arrangements to leave, and who may have assisted him, are central to the combined investigation, police say.