Freedom after 52 years locked up
Alf Vincent appeared to have no shame or embarrassment about his sex offending.
Previous sentences did little good, and he could not control himself around young males, he had told police.
So in 1968, he was sentenced to preventive detention – an open-ended prison term – and that’s the way it stayed for 52 years.
But now, 83 years old and in the late stages of dementia, a judge has decided the Parole Board was wrong not to release him by about August 2018.
‘‘He has been refused parole at least 48 times, most recently on August 19, 2019. He is apparently New Zealand’s longest serving prisoner,’’ Justice Jill Mallon said in her decision from the High Court at Wellington.
‘‘How can this be?’’ she asked.
He no longer presented an undue risk to the safety of the community, she said. He needed dementia care and should be released within three months, sooner if possible, but if it was in Vincent’s best interests, she could extend the period.
The judge said the Parole Board equated Vincent’s sexual interest with undue risk, without considering whether he would sexually offend in a serious way or just be a nuisance.
She found that he was disinhibited, and his behaviour was that of an elderlyman with dementia.
A doctor who saw Vincent in October said the only words she could understand from him were, ‘‘don’t like it here’’.
In 2018, the Parole Board had been concerned about Vincent’s welfare and where he would go. It should have set the date for his release, allowing time for arrangements to be put in place, the judge said.
The state detained Vincent for more than 50 years and it had a moral duty, and possibly a legal one, to see he had appropriate care when his detention was no longer justified, she added.
Born in October 1937, the eldest of five children, Vincent was raised in Kaiapoi, Canterbury.
In 1963 and 1964, when he was 26 or 27, Vincent received probation and a jail term of six months for doing an indecent act on boys.
In 1966, aged about 29, his sentence went up to 18 months in jail for permitting a boy to do an indecent act on him.
In October 1967, Vincent turned 30, and that year too he was caught, as he was in 1968. He pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent assault, involving five boys aged 12 to 14.
Three of the boys were taken for a ride in Vincent’s car, once each, when he touched himself in front of them and ‘‘interfered with their private parts’’. The other two boys received the same abuse, plus one was kissed. The most serious charge involved performing oral sex acts with one boy.
Employers said Vincent was a good worker at the unskilled jobs he had held since leaving school aged 15.
At 30, Vincent had been living with his parents, ‘‘hard-working decent folk’’ who were hurt by their son’s crimes. ‘‘However, Mr Vincent himself appeared to be ‘without shame or embarrassment’ and said he was introduced to this type of behaviour as a boy,’’ the judge said.
He was considered ‘‘dull’’, with an estimated IQ of about 81 when he began his long sentence. He was first considered for parole after seven years in jail but year after year, the board considered him an undue risk to release.
An attempt at daytime parole in 1984 saw Vincent convicted of preparing to commit a crime when he was spotted with his arm around a young boy’s shoulder.
‘‘He has been refused parole at least 48 times, most recently on August 19, 2019. He is apparently New Zealand’s longest serving prisoner.’’
Justice Jill Mallon
His last family visitor was thought to have been his sister in 2011.
After years at Canterbury’s Rolleston Prison, Vincent was moved in about 2018 to the high-dependency unit for male prisoners at Rimutaka Prison in Upper Hutt. He had an artificial eye, hearing aids, and an array of health problems.
By August this year, he was described as being generally smiley and compliant, and could be lured back to his cell with a cup of tea and a biscuit.