Kiwi murderer and child molester Phillip Smith was denied parole last month because he has yet to attend programmes to curb his violent and pedophilic tendencies.
A written decision by the New Zealand Parole Board revealed the reason for the denial on Wednesday, nearly two weeks after Smith's hearing at Rimutaka Prison.
In its previous meeting with Smith in May 2019, the board identified the need for him to undertake both a Child Sex Offender Treatment Programme (CSOTP) and a Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation Programme (STURP), due to his history of violence and sexual offending.
"Unfortunately, neither programme has begun," the board said in its decision.
"We are told however, it had been proposed that he be transferred to Rolleston Prison in April 2020 for commencement of the CSOTP but that had been delayed because of the COVID-19 epidemic."
With no known cases of coronavirus left in New Zealand, Smith's transfer to Rolleston Prison is likely soon, the board says.
Smith is one of the New Zealand prison system's most notorious inmates. He was jailed in 1995 after murdering the father of a 12-year-old boy he had been molesting, which he is currently serving a life sentence for.
He then escaped to Brazil in 2014 wearing a hairpiece while on temporary release from prison.
The toupee became a point of contention and was subsequently confiscated when he was returned to jail, but in 2017 the High Court ruled taking it was against his right to "free expression" under the Bill of Rights Act.
The Parole Board acknowledges Smith has a record of "violent offending, the brutal killing of a man, serious sexual offending against children and dishonesty offending while he was imprisoned".
It also agrees with the assessment of a psychologist that until Smith attends both programmes, he's still a high risk to the community.
The Parole Board will meet with Smith again by April 2022. It hopes by this time he will have completed the programmes and "can move towards reintegration should his risk have been reduced".
