In the matter of the Corrections Act 1997
and
In the matter of an application for parole by Neville Roy Arnol
18 December 2002
Reason for Decision
CHAIRMAN: Mr Arnol the determination of the Board is that you will be released on parole with effect from Monday the 23rd of December, 2002. You're on parole thereafter until the 6th of October 2007; which is a long period of parole. In many respects that's both a good and a bad thing in that it gives you a lot of support from a very professional organisation to assist you in your stated aim of rehabilitating yourself and reintegrating into the community - that's the positive, the negative is that it gives you a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong and I hope, and the other members of the Board hope, that that won't occur.
Now, we're obliged to give reasons for the order that we have just made, that's what I'm going to do now. It's not necessary for you to comment on this, I'm just outlining the reasoning process by which the Board reached the conclusion that it has.
You're currently serving a sentence of over 11 years, the bulk of which relates to a ten-year sentence of attempted murder that was imposed by Mr Justice Zeeman on the 13th of March 1997. You were convicted by a jury, after a trial.
The crime that has brought you here was a shocking crime; which effectively, from the material that we have, seems to have robbed a young woman of the better part of her life. You attacked her, basically left her for dead and you are lucky - and so is she - that you're not serving a sentence in relation to a charge of murder. The injuries that she was left with were crippling and will be with her forever. We have some material from the Victims Assistance Unit in relation to her, although we don't strictly speaking...we haven't strictly been provided with a Victim Impact Statement from them but we have been advised about that in writing and hence the statutory requirements as far as that are concerned are met.
Turning to other matters your prison record until the last 12 months or so has been bad and your prison record is a matter that we have to take into account under the Corrections Act - Section 71 requires it. It is clear to us, however, that the last 12 months have shown a substantial improvement in relation to your conduct, your behaviour, your management of your anger, your temper and your general demeanour in jail. That seems to have coincided with, or fired at least, the reclassification of you from Maximum to Medium security and giving to you of greater privileges, opportunities and responsibilities. We are hopeful that that improvement in your conduct, as a consequence we think of you being given a measure of trust and responsibility, will be reflected by continued improvement in relation to your conduct if you're afforded the opportunity of parole and that's one of the big factors that we've taken into account. We've taken into account your prior convictions. We've taken into account the comprehensive pre-parole reports that we have been furnished; significantly your domestic circumstances are upon release that you'll be residing with a Ms Sheree Fogerty and her two young children. Ms Fogerty is not known to the courts or Community Corrections and she's described as having a calm but strong personality with a well-developed idea of what she is and what she is not prepared to tolerate. Our view is that Ms Fogerty will have a beneficial impact upon you and we're pleased that you will be residing with her. We are not pleased that the domestic arrangements involve her ex-partner, Mr Cameron Roberts. We are told that upon your released Mr Roberts won't be residing there any further. We assume that that's going to occur, if we receive a report that it hasn't and there's some difficulties, you'll be back to see us because our concern is that that is an opportunity for difficulties to emerge that you don't need in the early part of your parole period. The Board also takes account of the fact that it has received a comprehensive report from Dr Ian Sale, an experienced Forensic Psychiatrist. That is a very recent report. He's of the view that there's no evidence of psychiatric disturbance in the usual sense. He takes...he notes that it seems likely that your behaviour has been comparatively settled over the last one or two years but goes on to say but otherwise both this period of imprisonment and prior periods would suggest a guarded outlook a relatively high risk of re-offending. We acknowledge that and we accept that opinion but we still think, not withstanding that view that it's appropriate that you be released to parole with the appropriate safeguards. We also take the view that, as I said earlier in these reasons, your substantially improved conduct over the last 12 months in prison gives us some cause to be optimistic for the future.
So taking all those matters into account the Board will authorise your release on parole from the 23rd of December - Monday - until the 6th of October 2007. You will be required upon release to report immediately, in person, to the manager of Community Corrections in Hobart. Thereafter you are subject to parole of the usual terms and conditions, which will be explained to you and you, will be required to sign off on. I want to highlight for you that you are not to follow Melissa Lester, loiter outside her place of residence or any place frequented by her or keep her under surveillance or act in any other way that could be expected to arouse her apprehension or fear. You may not consume any intoxicating liquor at all, whilst on parole. Similarly drug. You are not to enter upon or remain upon any licensed premises, that is to say pubs, clubs, sports clubs, hotels, casino for the first 24 months of your parole period - so you are to stay out of all of those establishments. Even if you are in there for a punt on the horses or a flutter on the keno and a lemon squash you are not. You may not be in there under any circumstances unless you have specific authorisation in writing, in advance, from your parole officer.
