Longest-serving prisoner released after 52 years
New Zealand’s longest serving prisoner, Alf Vincent, has left jail after 52 years.
His lawyer, Tony Ellis, had won a court order for Vincent’s release and said it was great he didn’t die in prison.
‘‘It’s remarkably refreshing to find he has been released after 52 years,’’ he said.
The 83-year-old dementia sufferer was released yesterday on schedule with a plan presented to a judge six days ago, a Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed.
Details of his new accommodation were suppressed.
Vincent, a sex offender originally from Canterbury, was most recently in a highdependency unit at Rimutaka Prison, north of Wellington.
In 1968, after earlier sexual offences against boys, he pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent assault and was sentenced to the open-ended term of preventive detention.
He was eligible to be considered for parole after seven years, and went before the board most years after that.
But after 52 years he was still serving the sentence because the Parole Board said he remained an undue risk to the safety of the community.
Lawyers Ellis and Graeme Edgeler took a case to the High Court seeking his release.
In a decision issued in December, Justice Jill Mallon found the board wrongly assessed the risk Vincent posed.
A doctor’s report made it clear, ‘‘in black and white’’, that Vincent was no longer a risk to young men or boys, or other residents, and that had been the position for some time, she said.
His risk did not justify his continued detention at least from
August 2018, except for any period it would have taken to arrange somewhere for him to go, the judge said.
Vincent had late-stage dementia and a range of other health issues. He appeared not to know his name, did not talk clearly, had no self-care skills, and required help for all his daily activities, she said.
Based on the judge’s finding that Vincent had been wrongly detained for years, Ellis was now exploring making a compensation claim for Vincent.
Although Vincent didn’t have need of much money, an award of compensation would vindicate the ‘‘unfortunate period’’ he was wrongly detained, Ellis said.