Timothy TAYLOR - 10/03/2020

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Timothy David TAYLOR

Hearing: 9 March 2020

at Christchurch Men’s Prison

Members of the Board:

  • Sir Ron Young – Chairperson
  • Assoc. Prof P Brinded
  • Judge J P Gittos
  • Mr C King

Counsel:

  • Mr P Hall

In Attendance:

  • Mr L Pullan – Principal Psychologist

Supporters:

  • [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Timothy David Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2003. He had a previous conviction for rape in 1986 as well as some drug offending, and then earlier in 2000 convictions for aggravated robbery and other offending. He has seven pages of offending, dishonesty and drugs going back as early as 1986.
  2. When we last saw him in September 2018 he had a number of misconducts. He wanted to go into self-care and then identified [withheld] as the appropriate release accommodation. We told him then that he needed to reduce his security classification and show an extended period of good conduct.
  3. As to the current position Mr Taylor did get down to low security classification but was increased again to low/medium because he had been using synthetic cannabis. He was then removed from his work outside the wire and returned inside the wire at the prison.
  4. He now has work inside the wire and has generally behaved well in prison. Obviously, his increase in security classification after the effort of getting down to low was a matter of serious concern to us.
  5. We note that Mr Taylor, in the past, has completed the Drug Treatment Programme (DTP) and the Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation Programme (STURP).
  6. We record that Mr Taylor continues to deny the murder and also denies his 2003 conviction for the 1986 rape. As a result, he has not completed any rehabilitation programmes for sex offenders. He has completed the STURP with respect to his violent offending given he has admitted convictions for earlier violent offending.
  7. Mr Taylor continues to show a pattern of disobedience of prison rules. We had hoped that by now he had been able to settle and stay out of trouble in prison.
  8. He still wants to be released to [withheld]. Although he is approved for release there in the long term, in the sense that [withheld] will have him, he does not have any confirmed date. In any event, in the meantime, we think he needs to continue to try and behave appropriately in prison and avoid any misconducts or any inappropriate conduct so that we could be confident that a release to [withheld] and its tight set of rules and obligations will work.
  9. We will therefore see him again in 12 months time, by the end of March 2021 with the hope that he has been able to do what we have asked of him. In the meantime, he remains an undue risk and cannot be released.

Sir Ron Young
Chairperson