Rodney FALLOWFIELD 12/7/2022

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Rodney Stuart FALLOWFIELD

Hearing: 12 July 2022

at Invercargill Prison via MS Teams

Members of the Board:

Ms Serina Bailey – Panel Convenor

Mr Lawrence Tawera

Mr Michael Quigg

In Attendance: [withheld] - Case Manager

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Rodney Stuart Fallowfield appears before the Board for the first time in consideration of parole after receiving a sentence of four years and three months’ imprisonment for the manslaughter of his then-partner.
  2. The offending occurred in the context of an argument.  What was supposed to have been a celebration event ended in her death.  Mr Fallowfield was with his partner in a motel when an argument started, and he became angry.  He strangled his then-wife and left her in the bed at the motel before he went to his daughter’s house from where he phoned the police.
  3. Mr Fallowfield does have some previous convictions, including assaults, attempted arson, driving matters, dishonesty and burglary.  It is noted that most of those convictions are relatively historical.
  4. Mr Fallowfield has on his sentence plan individual psychological sessions.  He was initially referred to the STU:VO unit to address violence offending.  As part of the assessment safety concerns were raised and it was determined that Mr Fallowfield would be unsafe to partake in a group activity.  Because of this he was referred to partake in individual psychological counselling which has yet to start.
  5. It is noted that Mr Fallowfield has always admitted his responsibility for the death of his wife and has been prepared to undertake offence-related treatment.  He appeared genuinely remorseful in today’s hearing.
  6. Mr Fallowfield has now transferred prisons and it was unclear when those psychological sessions will be started.
  7. When the hearing opened, Mr Fallowfield was advised that the Board had met with one of the victims of his offending [withheld].
  8. Mr Fallowfield engaged with the Board and said he wanted to do the psychological counselling sessions and was prepared to do any other courses that were recommended.  He confirmed to the Board that he was truly sorry for what had happened, and he will have to live with his guilt forever.  He was not asking for parole today as he was motivated to receive treatment.
  9. His case manager confirmed he had been moved to a different prison and that Mr Fallowfield could not undertake group treatments because of safety concerns hence the recommendation for the individual treatment.  The case manager was not able to give the board a timeframe for the start or finish of those individual sessions because of the move from Invercargill to another prison.
  10. His PCO today said that there were no concerns with Mr Fallowfield’s behaviour on the wing and he was on the waitlist to gain employment.
  11. Mr Fallowfield remains an undue risk until he completes his psychological sessions.  The case manager did say that if further treatment was considered to be appropriate after he had been through those sessions, then that would appear as a recommendation to be considered for the future.
  12. Mr Fallowfield had not put a release proposal to the Board because he was not seeking parole today.
  13. Mr Fallowfield remains an undue risk and will be seen again by a Board in 12 months’ time, that is in July 2023.

Ms S Bailey

Panel Convenor