New Zealand Parole Board -

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Anthony HITCHCOCK

Hearing: 3 December 2018

at Christchurch Men’s Prison

Members of the Board:

• Sir Ron Young – Chairperson
• Assoc Prof. P Brinded
• Ms P Rose

Support Persons:

• [withheld]
• [withheld]
• [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

1. Anthony Hitchcock is 62 years of age. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and preventive detention for serious sexual offending. He committed those offences while he was on parole for other relevant sexual assaults.
2. The last Board hearing was held in January 2016 and a postponement order was made, so we saw Mr Hitchcock for the first time in three years.
3. As to his current situation, he is in the recovery unit in his prison. He did not complete the Kia Marama programme in that the last portion of maintenance was not completed when he was asked to leave. Since then he has had 338 individual psychological treatment sessions. No further treatment is now proposed but the psychological report indicates that he needs to put in place the strategies he has learnt. He has had significant [withheld] counselling and an organisation called [withheld] has assisted him in developing his plans for the future.  It is clear that he has made real progress in self-regulating his behaviour. He has, in the past, acted aggressively and angrily when things have not gone his way. He has also a number of serious health issues.
4. He has been tentatively accepted, we are advised, into the [withheld], which is a nine month programme intended to reintegrate him or assist his reintegration into the community. That proposition is supported by the psychological report.
5. He does not however, have a clear way forward in terms of reintegration and a safety plan.  In questioning, it became clear that he did not have any real idea about where he would live in the future should he be released although he mentioned [withheld]. We understand that would be prohibited under the current rules of that organisation. Importantly, there was to be a meeting of the multi-disciplinary group to try and identify future proposals. That regretfully did not take place. We encourage it to take place now and for them to map out a programme for Mr Hitchcock over the next 12 months.
6. Mr Hitchcock remains an undue risk. We will see him again by the end of December 2019 with the hope that a fully developed reintegration and release programme has been able to be presented to the Board.
7. We would not like it to be thought that we are necessarily endorsing a release in 12 months time. We think Mr Hitchcock has a complex set of problems that will need careful assessment. We make this comment especially with the background of his offending, which occurred while he was subject to parole. It may well be that the triggers that contributed to that offending are still present in the way in which he presents his past and the reasons for his offending.