Mother killer freed after one year’s jail
A woman who killed her small, frail 69-year-old mother, has been freed on parole after serving less than a third of her sentence.
Annie Savage, 53, was sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment in August last year.
Also known as Annie Rangi, she had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her mother Aileen MacDonald at MacDonald’s Napier home on December 28, 2014.
MacDonald died three after the attack.
Savage claimed her mother, who wore a colostomy bag and used a mobility scooter, had become upset and stood up and threatened to beat her. She said she was acting in self-defence when she pinned her mother down on the couch then hit her.
When sentencing Savage, Justice David Collins noted she was an alcoholic and had been neglected by MacDonald, who had also been an alcoholic, when Savage was a child.
Savage was granted parole after her first hearing before the parole board on October 5.
The board said her psychologist described her as having gained significant insight into her risk factors and she was considered to days be at a low risk of further offending.
Savage had been working on prison grounds in the bee industry ‘‘which had become a positive interest of hers’’ and she was going to complete an apiculture certificate on her release.
‘‘The board has come to the conclusion that given Ms Savage’s own insight and the support that has been explained for her and was evident to us today that, if released, she will not be an undue risk of reoffending between release date and sentence end dates,’’ the board decided. Her sentence end date was February 10, 2019.
Savage was released earlier this month with a number of conditions that apply until April, 2018. These include a condition that she does not possess or consume alcohol or drugs.