A Dunedin prisoner assessed as posing a "dynamic risk" of violence to women has been denied parole again.
Despite Jamie Lester Dawson’s history of violence against women — four of whom have had a protection order made in their favour — he told the Parole Board he was not a violent person.
Convener Judge Edwin Paul and the rest of the panel disagreed and declined the 41-year-old early release.
Dawson was imprisoned for three and a-half years when he was sentenced at the Dunedin District Court in July 2016.
The court heard he punched and kicked his girlfriend before wielding a hammer in a threatening manner.
Dawson had attacked her five days earlier too.
In the first attack he punched her about the face near her eyes and knocked her to the floor, before he kicked her in the back several times.
Dawson then held her down and punched her in the right calf.
As she tried to leave the caravan, he stood in her way with the metal implement and told her he would "take her head off her shoulders".
Before Dawson’s parole hearing at Otago Corrections Facility last month, the victim faced the board and asked the panel not to release him to Dunedin.
"She continues to be fearful of Mr Dawson and this affects her daily health," Judge Paul said.
While Dawson’s behaviour in prison had been acceptable and he was a minimum-security inmate, the board said he had no real release plan.
"We also have the psychologist’s report which highlights this man’s dynamic risk against intimate partners as moderate to high. In our view, given the ferocity of his attack on [the victim], the number of injuries he inflicted upon her and the fact he is subject to four protection orders by four different women, that demonstrates to this board he has a high risk of violence against any future intimate partner.
"That will need to be taken into consideration on any possible future release," Judge Paul said.
The board was similarly unimpressed by the inmate’s attitude.
"He denied he was a violent person. That position he takes is simply untenable given his history of violence against women and the number of protection orders against him. Care will need to be taken in the future in terms of any intimate relationship but also care in terms of where this man is released given his significant domestic violence history and the ongoing fears of [the victim] which, in this board’s view, are entirely justified."
Dawson will next be seen by the Parole Board in a year at which point they hoped he had a "robust release proposal".
