Shiloh RICKARD 25/07/2024

Under section 21(1) of the Parole Act 2002

Shiloh RICKARD

Hearing: 25 July 2024

On the papers

Members of the Board:

Sir Ron Young – Chairperson

Dr J Skipworth

Mr A Hackney

Dr G Coyle

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Mr Rickard is 63 years of age.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2008, together with a finite sentence involving assault with a weapon.  Prior to that he had three pages of convictions, mostly violence and also some imprisonment for burglaries.
  2. Prior to the hearing we had the opportunity of meeting with a number of victims of Mr Rickard's offending.  We acknowledge their submissions to us both oral and in writing.  [withheld].
  3. Mr Rickard waived his attendance today.  In addition, Mr Rickard has not been prepared to talk in any detail with his case manager or with the psychologist that we asked prepare a report for the Board today.  We will have more to say about that situation at the end of this decision.
  4. Given this is Mr Rickard's first Parole Board consideration, we set out in very brief summary form the facts of the offending.  Mr Rickard murdered a young woman he had been in a relationship with.  [withheld].  The victim of the second count, assault with a weapon, was her younger sister.  [withheld].
  5. Their victim agreed that Mr Rickard could come around to the house on the Friday night for drinks.  He took a knife to the house.  [withheld] It was a ferocious attack on the victim who died.  During the course of the attack Mr Rickard went to the kitchen, after he had broken his first knife and retrieved another knife. A that stage the victim's sister was able to escape and call the police. Mr Rickard went back into the living area and killed his ex-partner. He was sentenced to a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
  6. As we noted Mr Rickard has persistently refused to be interviewed, either by case managers or psychologist, and so the background information the Parole Board has is, as a result, somewhat limited.  He has had a pattern of offending over the years with some violence.  There was a gap between 1985 and 1995.  The violence indicates a pattern of assaults and violence towards women.  [withheld].
  7. He said that he would not engage in treatment programmes and has maintained that stance throughout his sentence.  There are very few prison records of any visits or any telephone contact.  He has either expressly declined or very rapidly withdrawn from any form of rehabilitation.  [withheld].  When these issues are discussed, he appears to somewhat go round in circles, and it can be difficult to understand exactly what his view is [withheld].
  8. In prison he has generally been positive, [withheld].  He has had three misconducts but nothing since 2010.  Although in the past were some examples of aggressive behaviour in prison, nothing more recently.
  9. The psychological report indicates that he should do the STU:VO Programme and a period of individual responsivity was recommended.
  10. The difficulty now is that, as we have indicated, Mr Rickard has refused to participate in any of the interviews.  He refuses to participate in the programme and has now refused to talk to the Board.  This is obviously a very difficult situation for the Board.  It is very difficult for us to understand Mr Rickard's point of view if he does not come to the Board and explain it.
  11. So we strongly encourage Mr Rickard to come to the Board and talk through what he sees as the way forward for himself, including what he sees as a safe release into the community.  We are interested to know his point of view and so we encourage him to come and tell us what his point of view is about a possible release.  Further, we strongly encourage Mr Rickard to talk to his case manager and the psychologist who has offered to interview him.  [withheld].
  12. Finally, we think it will be valuable for Mr Rickard to have a lawyer, and so the Board will undertake to contact a lawyer and have that lawyer visit Mr Rickard so he can give the lawyer instructions about what he sees as the way forward toward a safe release for himself.
  13. It is important to understand however, that although we will see Mr Rickard by the end of January 2025, the purpose of that is so that we can understand Mr Rickard's point of view, and so we can identify working with him on a way forward.  It is not for the purpose of a release on parole at that stage.  We cannot imagine that that will be the situation then.  It is to identify the way forward.

Sir Ron Young

Chairperson