New Zealand Parole Board -

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Peter George DAVIS

Hearing: 13 March 2019

at Tongariro Prison

via AVL from Christchurch Men’s Prison

Members of the Board:

• Judge N MacLean – Panel Convenor
• Assoc Prof. P Brinded
• Mr C King

Support Persons:

• [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

1. Peter George Davis is before the Board for the twelfth time, at age 67.
2. It had been anticipated that his counsel, Mr Eagles, would be appearing but we received notification that, in the circumstances, he would not be for reasons outlined in his letter.
3. That reflects the reality of the situation which is that Mr Davis was not expecting parole today for reasons which will be discussed.
4. He was supported today by [withheld], a chaplain, who was able to make some comment on Mr Davis’ progress.
5. The Principal Corrections Officer today confirmed that Mr Davis raises no issues at all and we spent some time discussing a novel approach, which Mr Davis has adopted, of presenting a quilted safety plan which he spoke to briefly and showed us on the audio visual links.
6. Little substantively has actually happened since the last Board in 2017 although there has been some progress. A proposal for self-care at Springhill fell through because Mr Davis experienced a confrontation there due to his status as a sex offender, apparently.
7. He had been declined by [withheld].
8. He is being sponsored by [withheld] and maintains contact; both visits and by correspondence with them.
9. Significantly, [withheld] have been in very recent touch with him and he has had a guided release to [withheld], who are beginning to work on issues around accommodation for him.  It is early days yet, but Mr Davis anticipates that in due course a further face-to-face meeting with [withheld] may happen.
10. The psychological report of 23 January described Mr Davis as seeming pessimistic and disheartened in his outlook. [Chaplain] confirmed that there are still elements of that but what we are picking up is that with the benefit now of his [withheld] hearing aid, which he has had for two months, and a glimmer of hope in the very recent discussions with [withheld], he is a little less pessimistic and disheartened.
11. He described how he keeps himself busy, working in the kitchens in the morning and other activities in the afternoons.
12. He said that he enjoys and has got benefit out of a number of courses. He could not remember the name of all of them, but one that he did recall is the Paying It Forward course.
13. He acknowledged that he continues to have issues about reading or writing but is grateful for the assistance he gets from his case manager to help with typing out matters for him.
14. The Board began to try and tease out from Mr Davis, on the assumption that in due course he will find some supported accommodation, his technique for dealing with the inevitable confrontations that could arise in a shared accommodation situation. He said he has thought about that and his position is that in the past he has tended to bottle things up and realises that that is not the way to go. Also, he believes he has improved his communication skills and that good two-way communication is critical in that sort of stressed situation.
15. As we told him at the time, we are declining parole today. Clearly there is a lot to be done in light of his history and the Board will see him again in December 2019, before the end of that month.