Shiloh RICKARD 30/01/2025

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(2) of the Parole Act 2002

Shiloh RICKARD

Hearing: 30 January 2025

On the papers

Members of the Board:

Sir Ron Young – Chairperson

Dr J Ioane

Mr A Hackney

DECISION OF THE BOARD

  1. Mr Rickard is 64 years of age, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2008.  At the same time he had a finite sentence of assault with a weapon.  Prior to that he had three pages of convictions including violent offending, burglaries, robbery, cultivating cannabis stretching back to borstal training imposed in 1977.
  2. The victims asked that he not be released to Dunedin but would prefer the whole of the South Island as an exclusion zone and Wellington.
  3. We saw him last in July 2024.  He waived his attendance then.  He has also waived his attendance today.  He was not prepared to talk to his case manager or his psychologist for any reports.
  4. He murdered a young woman he had been in a relationship with.  She was 27 years of age at the time and the mother of a child 19 months old.  The second victim was the younger sister.  Mr Rickard and his partner had separated.  He asked and she agreed that he could come around to her house for dinner.  When he did so he attacked her with a knife, the broke the first knife and retrieved another from the kitchen.  When the victim’s sister tried to intervene she was also attacked by Mr Rickard.
  5. His minimum non-parole period was 17 years.  At the pre-sentence report he said that he did not think there were any problems in the relationship.  He said then that he could not recall the offending but said he did not take a knife to the home on the day of the murder.  He said he would not engage in any treatment programmes and on every occasion offered he has either declined or rapidly withdrawn.  He said he does not believe in intervention programmes.  He has behaved well in prison without difficulty.  He is assessed to do the STU:VO programme beginning with sessions on individual responsivity.  Unfortunately, he has not started any such programme.  We encouraged him last time to come to the Board, but as is evident he has not come.
  6. Mr Rickard has a strong religious belief, he makes frequent references to God and biblical scripture in his discussions with the psychologist.  He was absolute in his assertion that it was God alone who would dictate his path forward not his case manager, not Psychological Services or the Parole Board.  He said he did not want to meet any of those parties nor did he wish to undertake any treatment.  He said that he would not deviate from what he believes is the pathway laid out for him by God.
  7. [withheld].
  8. [withheld]
  9. [withheld].
  10. We will see Mr Rickard in nine months’ time approximately, that is by the end of September 2025 with the hope that that report has been able to be provided.

Sir Ron Young

Chairperson