Notorious double murderer gets parole
Margaret Jamieson was 47 when her parents, John and Josie Harrison, were shot by Leith Ray and Gresham Marsh in their Waikato home.
Now 70, she would like nothing more than to see both of them locked up forever.
But a parole board has just decided that Ray will be allowed out. It’s not the first time Ray’s been paroled and he blew it within days.
The Harrisons had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary when Ray, then 19, and Marsh, then 22, broke into their Te Akau home in 1994.
The break-in woke John, 86, and when he confronted them, he was shot in the back. Josie, 74, was shot while lying in bed. It’s then believed Ray and Marsh took turns shooting the couple again with the stolen rifle.
Ray, 43, is to be paroled from prison for the second time early in March.
‘‘We don’t like it, as we think they both should be in prison for the rest of their lives. But we know it’s not a possibility these days,’’ Jamieson said
Jamieson has three sisters in New Zealand and a brother in Australia.
‘‘If they think that he is suitable for release, then that is the parole board’s job to do that.’’
Ray was released for the first time on February 8, 2016, but was back in prison days later after testing positive for meth in a pre-employment drug test.
He claimed he ingested it unwittingly when sipping from an associate’s drink bottle.
The latest parole board hearing was two weeks ago.
‘‘We are satisfied that his assessed moderate risk of reoffending can be managed in the community with the conditions which we will impose, including the requirement to undertake and complete an unnamed programme [and] the prohibition on consuming or using alcohol or illicit substances,’’ the Springhill Prison parole board said in their findings.
‘‘Each parole hearing does bring up horrible memories, but as the years go by, it sort of lessens it a bit.
‘‘But you can’t stop thinking about them [her parents] and it’s upsetting,’’ Jamieson said.
She’s made video submissions at all of them against Ray’s release.
‘‘They say you can’t change a leopard’s spots. I don’t know, the parole board think he’s changed. Perhaps he should have grown up a bit, but judging by the last time, it didn’t look he’d improved by coming out and disobeying his parole conditions.’’
Jamieson, who lives in Auckland, has never spoken to Ray or Marsh. Conditions mean that Ray isn’t allowed north of the Bombay Hills without permission.
Marsh remains in prison. Jamieson believes he is the more dangerous – that Ray was a follower.
‘‘So I think if he’s grown up and can stand by himself, he might be a better person.’’