Scott Watson to get jail treatment
Convicted Sounds double killer declined parole for third time while an undue risk
Convicted Marlborough Sounds double killer Scott Watson says he can’t get psychologist treatment behind bars because he won’t confess to the murders.
Watson, 49, had parole declined for the third time earlier this month.
He made his latest attempt at freedom in front of the Parole Board at Rolleston Prison, south of Christchurch.
But at the conclusion of the hearing, panel convenor Sir Ron Young told him: “It’s a no to parole, which perhaps won’t surprise you.”
The board concluded that Watson remained an undue risk and could not yet be released.
Watson has spent more than 22 years behind bars.
He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for the 1998 murders of Olivia Hope, 17, and Ben Smart, 21.
He will come back before the board next November.
The Parole Board yesterday released its full decisions in declining parole.
A 2016 Parole Board decision identified the risk factors relating to Watson who has always denied killing, or even ever meeting, Hope and Smart.
On a psychopathy checklist, the board noted Watson fell within a group of offenders “who show an elevated rate and speed of recidivism, particularly relative to violence”.
The board felt Watson’s denials should not be seen as an insurmountable problem.
“Unfortunately, Mr Watson has not been able, over an extended period, with the help of psychologists to identify his treatment needs and start treatment,” the board said in its reasons released yesterday.
“Corrections believe that they have provided Mr Watson with reasonable opportunities to identify treatment needs and begin treatment.
“Mr Watson feels that they have not been prepared to help him and have insisted that he confess to the crime or have placed other impediments in his way.”
Now, the board has asked Corrections to see Watson “urgently”.
The fact that Watson has a new appeal before the Court of Appeal “should not be an impediment”, the board says.
“Hopefully Corrections can then identify treatment needs and hopefully a beginning of that treatment in the foreseeable future.”
Watson and his supporters — the case has long divided public opinion — were given fresh hope in June this year after Justice Minister Andrew Little announced that GovernorGeneral Dame Patsy Reddy had referred his case back to the Court of Appeal for a new hearing.
It came after an investigation by former High Court judge Sir Graham Panckhurst QC raised concerns about forensic evidence used to convict Watson.