By 3 News online staff
A Feilding teenager who accompanied Ewen Macdonald on a crime spree including arson, criminal damage and slaughtering calves has been released from prison.
He had served just half of his sentence.
Callum Boe was sentenced to two years in prison in September last year, but the Parole Board and Boe’s lawyer confirmed to RadioLive today that he is a free man.
Boe worked on the dairy farm Macdonald managed and the pair became close, eventually partnering up and committing a number of crimes - dubbed “missions of revenge” - together.
Those crimes were only discovered when police questioned Boe regarding the death of Macdonald’s brother-in-law and business partner Scott Guy.
Boe admitted to the crimes which led police to arrest Macdonald for Mr Guy’s murder.
Macdonald was charged with the murder but acquitted by a jury early last month.
During the trial, the crimes the pair committed were suppressed to ensure a fair trial but last week, the suppression lapsed and the details of what Macdonald and Boe did became public.
Boe was sent to prison for two years, serving his total sentence of six years concurrently.
Their list of offending:
- Criminal damage: Slaughtering 19 calves belonging to Himatangi dairy farmer Paul Barber on the night of August 9, 2007. The calves had been struck on the head with a hammer.
- Criminal damage: Emptying 16,000 litres of milk from a vat belonging to another Himatangi farmer, Nigel Sexton, on the same night the calves were culled.
- Arson: Burning down an historic Maori whare built in 1888 which was on Mr Sexton’s farm. Macdonald used an LPG bottle and boat fuel to start the fire. The whare was used as a family sleep out and a duck shooter’s shelter.
- Theft: Driving to a nearby farm and shooting two trophy stags, one each. They put them on Macdonald’s trailer and buried them in a pre-dug hole on the Guy family farm, where Macdonald was a manager.
- Criminal damage: Burning down an old farm house on the back of removal trailers at the site of Scott and Kylee Guy’s new home. The house and trailers were destroyed.
- Criminal damage: Vandalising Scott and Kylee Guy’s new home once construction had nearly finished.
The slaughtering of the calves, the emptying of the milk and the arson were carried out as revenge against the farmers because they were caught and trespassed after poaching deer 100-200 times on Mr Sexton and Mr Barber’s farms.
After both men apologised and returned the deer heads, they came back several months later to commit the crimes.
RadioLive also spoke to Boe’s grandparents who confirmed their grandson was no longer behind bars.
Boe’s parents died when he was a young boy and his grandparents raised him.
3 News
source: newshub archive
