Media Release
21 April 2004

Parole Board Is A Threat To New Zealanders

New Zealand First law and order spokesperson Ron Mark has congratulated Justice Chisholm for the sentence he handed down to serial sex offender Gary Isherwood.

Isherwood was today sentenced to preventative detention with a minimum parole period of 10 years for his part in the drug rape of an 18-year-old woman.

“Justice Chisholm has accurately identified this man as a menace to society and has sentenced him accordingly. However, not only is Isherwood a danger to New Zealanders, but the Parole Board and the Corrections Department are a danger too,” said Mr Mark.

“Dangerous criminals don’t release themselves, instead it is the soft ‘touchy feely’ individuals that sit on the Parole Board who let them out.

“We have had a spate of tragic crimes committed whilst offenders have been on parole. When the parole board has made such enormous mistakes such as William Bell and Anthony Roma we expect them to err on the side of caution, instead of replicating past mistakes.

“Isherwood should be kept away for a very long time, along with other offenders who commit these types of crimes,” said Mr Mark.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>