After 23 years in prison a man who killed an Oamaru woman with an axe then sexually assaulted her daughter is still considered too dangerous to release.
Anthony Phillip Hitchcock (63) was declined parole last month after the Parole Board heard he still presented a medium to high risk of violence and sexual offending.
The board, however, said it would consider his release to the UK at his next hearing.
In December 1996, Hitch-
cock was sentenced to life imprisonment with preventive detention for murdering a 38-year-old woman, and then attempting to rape her young daughter.
Hitchcock was one of the first people in the country to be given both a life sentence and preventive detention.
The names of the murdered woman and her daughter are permanently suppressed.
Those crimes came just months after the man had been released from jail following sexual offending against a girl under 12.
Panel convener and Parole Board chairman Sir Ron Young noted that very little had changed in Hitchcock’s circumstances from when he was last seen.
“As far as Mr Hitchcock’s reintegration is concerned, matters have not really
progressed at all. He has still not identified suitable long-term accommodation,” Sir Ron said.
“We have previously indicated to him that we would be looking for some form of residential programme if we were seriously considering release.”
The possibility of Hitchcock entering the Navigate programme was considered — the country’s first community-run reintegration unit — but his health problems made him unsuitable.
The Parole Board discussed with him the possibility of returning to the UK since he was a citizen there.
Hitchcock said he would speak to relatives there and investigate the possibility of his return.
Hitchcock had spent some time out of prison following heart surgery several years ago but staff became so concerned of his “escalating and imminent risk” he went back behind bars.
His behaviour include sexualised comments and inappropriate behaviour towards young women, the board previously heard.
Sir Ron said the board heard from the family of the prisoner’s victims before his most recent hearing.
Hitchcock — who works in the kitchen at Christchurch Men’s Prison — said he was “very sorry” about the offending.
“He wished that he could turn back time but he could not,” Sir Ron said.
“He understood their view and said that he was constantly reminded of the harm he had done to them.”
The Parole Board urged Hitchcock to work on his release plan with his case manager before his next hearing in November.
