“The Sentencing Judge has the power and tools to sentence Paul Wilson to Life Imprisonment without Parole if they choose to”

On Thursday 28thMarch one of New Zealand’s most horrific violent offenders will be sentenced for the brutal murder of Nicole Tuxford.

Double murderer Paul Wilson brutally murdered Kimberly Schroder on the West Coast in 1994. He was sentenced to LIFE IMPRISONMENT with no Parole for 15 years; this was reduced to 13 years on appeal. Parole decisions indicated that Wilson had an excessive amount of psychological sessions in his final years, yet despite this he was granted parole and went on to murder Nicole Tuxford in a planned and hideously violent way, very similar to the murder he carried out in 1994.

Spokesperson for Victim Rights Lobby Group, the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Jess McVicar says this is the time for the Justice System to show just how invested they really are in caring for our victims and the publics’ safety, “The Sentencing Judge has the power and tools to sentence Paul Wilson to Life Imprisonment without parole if they so choose to. It would be the first time in New Zealand it has been done, it can be done, and we believe it would be completely appropriate in this case.”

Jess said the Sentencing Act states the court must sentence offenders such as Wilson to life without parole unless the court is satisfied that given the circumstances of the offence and the offender it would be manifestly unjust to do so. “So far this has been the way out for every Judge that has had the opportunity to use this sentence. They have changed the meaning of the law and used the manifestly unjust option as a way to not sentence to life in prison with no parole.”

Jess went on to say the Sensible Sentencing Group Trust, which is the victim advocacy and victim support arm of the trust, have been supporting Nicole’s family through the horrific process they are enduring “A process they would not have had to be involved in at all, if the Parole Board had listened to the concerns of Kimberly Schroder’s family. They had written to the Parole Board many times asking for him not to be released but they were ignored, because of our Justice system and the so called “expert” opinions. Sadly Kimberly’s father, Gary Schroder took his own life after Nicole’s murder because he felt responsible.”

Police had the opportunity to arrest Wilson [who has changed his surname to Tainui] on the day he killed Nicole because he was caught drunk driving and in possession of knives “Again our system failed to protect, why on earth would they not detain him? Surely a dangerous killer on life parole should at the very least been taken into custody and contact made with the Probation Officer!”

Jess says many errors were made in this case; they were all major mistakes within the Justice System that can be fixed, if the Ministry of Justice wanted to. “We have previously requested what we believe to be urgent legislation changes and we have been told it is a lengthy process, but the current government have shown us this week, with changes in gun laws, that they can make legislative changes very swiftly, when and if they want to!”

The Crown are seeking life imprisonment without parole to be imposed when Wilson is sentenced on Thursday and the Sensible Sentencing Trust say if the Judge decides that a sentence of life with no parole would be manifestly unjust, then the trust will push for the decision to be appealed.

“We hope for once the Judge takes into account the safety of the community as that must be the paramount consideration and furthermore, if LIFE actually meant LIFE, both Nicole Tuxford and Gary Schroder would be alive today. Please, don’t make that mistake again.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/110729786/crown-seeks-precedentsetting-life-without-parole-sentence-for-paul-russell-wilson

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