Prominent Northland farmer and anti-Treaty activist Allan Titford has been granted parole on his 10th attempt, after serving almost 13 years behind bars.
By Peter de Graaf of RNZ
Titford was sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison in 2013 after a jury found him guilty of 39 charges related to raping his wife, violence against his children, perjury, obstructing justice, and burning down his own home – an arson attack he blamed on local Māori.
The jury found him not guilty of 14 charges, which included other charges of rape and arson, threatening to kill and assault.
Titford, who is now in his mid-60s, appeared for the last time before the Parole Board yesterday afternoon.
His release date and location were suppressed, but he will be living in a rural area in the North Island.
He will be prohibited from travelling north of the Brynderwyn Hills, which form the border between Auckland and Northland, and to Pukekohe in South Auckland.
The four-member panel repeatedly asked Titford if he had committed the offences he was convicted of.
He was also asked if he had "hurt his children pretty badly", as they claimed in court in 2013.
He did not directly deny the offences, but said he would maintain the position he held during the trial "until hell freezes over".
He did, however, accept he had been convicted, whether he committed the offences or not.
"You've got to accept the situation. I've been found guilty of the offending, I've got to accept that's what happened."
Asked a second time by Parole Board member Susanna Every-Palmer if he had hurt his children, he again avoided a direct answer.
"What do you perceive as hurt? Some of them have withdrawn their statements now they are parents themselves. I could say I was hurt by the Catholic school I went to… You're asking me to plead guilty, I'm not doing that."
He claimed difficulties with his children had been caused by "interference" by their grandparents and teachers.
Corrections staff were complimentary of Titford's conduct.
A prison officer said there had been no misconduct, he "did a really good job" of looking after the prison recycling, got on well with other prisoners and was respectful of staff.
His case manager said she had accompanied him on a guided release to his future home and a first meeting with his brother since he was locked up.
Both had gone well, she said.
Titford himself described prison, in recent years, as "the friendliest environment I've ever lived in".
Part of that was due to his job, which made him well-known to prisoners and staff alike.
Board member Gemma Rogers asked him how, once he was released, he would respond to people whose point of view he did not agree with.
He told her he would now just say, "You've got your opinion, I've got mine", and walk away.
The "intermittently strained" relationship with his brother was due to political issues 40 years ago, he said.
Once outside, he would keep himself busy with court cases he was pursuing against the Far North District Council over rates and land access, against a power company, and trying to recover a seized fishing trawler.
During the hearing, Titford often meandered off topic or failed to answer the questions asked.
However, he was clear about what he was looking forward to most after his release: Joining language classes and continuing the learning he had started in prison.
"Learning Spanish is my playground, my party time," he said.
As well as exclusion zones, other parole conditions include a curfew, electronic monitoring, and a ban on firearms.
When sentencing Titford in the Whangārei District Court 13 years ago, Judge Duncan Harvey said the then 53-year-old had subjected his wife and family to a "reign of terror".
After his Maunganui Bluff farm was bought by the Crown in the 1990s to settle a Treaty claim with local iwi Te Roroa, Judge Harvey said Titford tried to win public sympathy by sabotaging his own bulldozer and burning down his own homestead.
"These incidents received nationwide publicity and, as a result of your actions, the local Māori people earned the anger of many people in New Zealand who sympathised with you because of what they saw as a grave injustice. It is time for the people of New Zealand to learn the truth," Judge Harvey said.
The compulsory purchase of his farm sparked Titford's 20-year campaign against the Waitangi Tribunal and the Treaty settlements process.
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