Taylor’s long incarceration comes to end
Corrections
One of New Zealand’s longestserving prisoners has been released from jail.
Arthur Taylor, 62, was released yesterday morning after spending the better part of 40 years behind bars.
Radio NZ reported his sister and two friends met him in the Waikeria Prison car park.
Radio NZ’S Lisa Owen said: ‘‘He said: It’s a great day. It’s a great day to be free.’’
Taylor would be spending the day with his sister, who lives in Paeroa, before heading to Auckland to attend to some legal business, Radio NZ said.
He has been paroled to Dunedin and will be heading there in a few days.
Taylor has said he wishes to gain a law degree and continue his social justice work.
He was first jailed in the 1970s and has since racked up a raft of convictions for kidnapping, drugs and firearms charges.
In 2013, Taylor successfully took the Government to court over prisoners’ rights to vote. In 2018, the Supreme Court backed the High Court’s ruling that prison inmates have the right to vote as denying them was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights.