Wan Yee CHOW 28/08/2024

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Wan Yee CHOW

Hearing: 28 August 2024

at Tongariro Prison via MS Teams

Members of the Board:

Sir Ron Young – Chairperson

Prof P Brinded

Ms C Tiumalu

Mr A Hackney

Counsel: Mr O Hintze

In Attendance: 

[withheld] - Case Manager

[withheld] – Communications Assistant

[withheld] - Interpreter

Support Persons: [withheld]

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Mr Chow, who is 71 years of age, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2007, the offending in 2005.  He pleaded not guilty and was convicted by a jury. Prior to that offending Mr Chow has a very worrying past of violent offending and from 1990 through until the murder in 2005 he had total prison sentences of 17 and a half years.  That illustrates the very serious offending. Mr Chow, for money, shot another man.  Mr Chow denies the offending.
  2. When we talked with Mr Chow about his past offending, that is offending prior to the murder, he said that he was involved in debt collection which often involved fighting.
  3. Although he became eligible for parole back in February 2023 and although we have had three Parole Board hearings, today was really the first time in which we were able to have a coherent hearing. [withheld] There were real difficulties in the way in which the hearings were conducted, such that the hearings were effectively adjourned so that further work could be done to try and improve communication.
  4. The reason for the communication difficulties is that Mr Chow has no English.  He does speak Cantonese, although we are told it is a relatively uncommon dialect. [withheld].  Therefore, we were able to arrange for an interpreter to be present in the Tongariro Prison, a communications assistant also present in the prison, as well as his lawyer, case manager and PCO. That process, therefore, seemed to go relatively well.
  5. [withheld].
  6. Mr Chow is undertaking work with a psychologist.  He is assessed at being a medium risk of violent re‑offending, said to be at the lower end of that category. While we appreciate that categorisation we also note, as previously advised, that Mr Chow has had a number of extremely serious violent offences in his past, but we appreciate now at 71 years of age his likely risk has reduced.
  7. It was hoped that his one‑on‑one work with a psychologist would be completed by now, but the treatment has not been as quick as hoped for a number of reasons. He has some further sessions to complete. There will then be a psychological report needed to assess his risk what further rehabilitative work may be required, what reintegrative work might be appropriate and what his reintegrative needs in terms of release and accommodation would be appropriate.
  8. We acknowledge that he does appear to have a possibly good release proposal [withheld].
  9. And so, he remains an undue risk. We will see him by the end of April 2025 with the hope that we have a psychological assessment as we have an indicated and we can identify what if any further work needs to be done to improve the possibility of a safe release into the community.
  10. In the meantime, he remains an undue risk.

Sir Ron Young

Chairperson