Aubrey HARRISON - 19/08/2019

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Aubrey Thomas HARRISON

Hearing: 19 August 2019

at Rimutaka Prison

Members of the Board:

  • Sir Ron Young – Chairperson
  • Ms P Rose
  • Dr J Skipworth

Counsel:

  • Ms S Shone

Supporters:

  • [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Mr Harrison was convicted of murder in 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He is 39 years of age.  He is on minimum security classification. This is the first time he has been seen with respect to this charge by the Parole Board. He does have a long history of violence, drugs, traffic offences and disobedience of Court orders, extending to some six pages and going back to 1997, since he was a young man. He’s been to prison six previous times.
  2. As far as the facts of the offending are concerned. It arose out of sexual offending against a child by the victim. Three people, two men including Mr Harrison and a woman, took the law into their own hands once they found out about the sexual offending. They attacked and killed the man after taking him for a drive. Mr Harrison was involved as a party to the killing. He was then a member of Black Power.
  3. As far as the current situation is concerned, Mr Harrison has completed the STURP in 2018. He did very well there with positive reports. His early prison behaviour was poor, including some drugs but since 2016 there has been a significant turnaround. He was in selfcare for a period and did well there, although was removed for reasons not associated with his conduct. His last misconduct therefore was in 2016 and there have been no drugs and positive reports, effectively, since 2014. He was described in prison as a good worker, being at high risk of reoffending but making good progress. He does have a broad release plan but no current accommodation. He identifies the Wellington region as somewhere he wants to live.
  4. In the meantime, however, he remains an undue risk. He has just begun his reintegration. He is about to be returned to self-care. It seems highly likely he has employment at [withheld] in [withheld] and has been in any event confirmed as someone suitable for release to work. All of this progress on reintegration and rehabilitation illustrates the confidence Mr Harrison has been able to engender in Corrections. We have congratulated him on the excellent progress made.
  5. We will see him again in just under 12 months time, July 2020. By that time we hope to have a full report on his reintegration progress and firmed arrangements for his reintegration into the community.

Sir Ron Young
Chairperson