Prison wedding ‘revolting’ - Upston

Far from a marriage for the society pages, when former high-flying lawyer Davina Murray weds murderer Liam Reid in prison it will be a ‘‘revolting’’ affair, says the Corrections Minister.

Reid will have a fellow murderer as his best man, a prison source says. It’s understood Vanessa Pickering’s killer Malcolm Chaston will be at Reid’s side. The marriage was to have taken place yesterday at the maximum security Auckland Prison at Paremoremo.

Corrections Minister Louise Upston did not hold back her disgust over the nuptials.

‘‘I find that particular marriage absolutely distasteful, and I think most New Zealanders will.

‘‘Unfortunately, it’s not against the law to get married in this country. But I am thinking of Emma Agnew’s family, because they won’t get to see her married,’’ Upston said yesterday.

Reid is serving a preventive detention sentence for the rape and murder of deaf Christchurch woman Emma Agnew, and the rape and attempted murder of a second Dunedin woman. Murray was struck off by the Lawyers and Conveyancers Tribunal in 2015 after smuggling contraband to her then-client, Reid.

Upston said she was hoping to look into whether a lifetime ban on visiting prisons was possible to enforce, for people who had brought contraband. ’’I find it revolting, I find it absolutely distasteful,’’ she said. ‘‘I think [banning marriage in prison] would be a fairly hard one to get through, but I do think there needs to be a greater level of rigour around the consideration firstly, of who gets to visit. In this instance, she is convicted of bringing contraband into a prison and there was a ban in place. I’m actually quite keen to look at whether lifetime bans for people who take contraband into prison, is an option.’’