Arthur William Taylor

Taylor says he has escaped from prison twelve times, including twice in Australia.[12] In 1998, he and three others, including murderer Graeme Burton, escaped from Auckland Prison by scaling the walls at Paremoremo, snipping through the wire at the top and getting away in a waiting Toyota Hiace.[13] They spent a few days in a millionaire's bach in the Coromandel. Taylor was caught after a massive police operation and returned to prison. He was released at the end of his sentence in 2001.[14]

Taylor was sent back to prison in December 2004 after being charged with drug and firearms offences and possessing explosives. He escaped again in 2005 when he was being taken to a family group conference at Child Youth and Family (CYFs) offices in Wellington to discuss the custody of his child. He was assisted by Manu Royal who pointed an air pistol at the two prison officers escorting him and told them to unlock Taylor's handcuffs.[15] Taylor was recaptured after he fell through the ceiling in a downtown Wellington building and landed on top of a startled woman in a toilet cubicle.[16]

Taylor says that, with the help of a Corrections officer, he smuggled his sperm out of prison and that it was used to impregnate his wife, Carolyn Taylor, who later gave birth.[17] A Corrections spokesperson said "we do not believe he is the biological father of a child born in June 2007". However, a Child, Youth and Family spokeswoman told the NZ Herald that Taylor was recognised by the agency as the father, after he was named on the birth certificate by his wife. Taylor also received regular visits from the child in prison.[18]

In March 2017, Taylor was serving a sentence of 17 years and 6 months when he made his 18th appearance before a parole board. The sentence was for serious violent and drug-related offending. Parole was denied, the board deeming him too dangerous for early release. His next appearance before the board was scheduled for March 2018.[19] On 1 March 2018, the outcome of a parole board hearing was announced; the board denied Taylor parole on the grounds that he was likely to reoffend. A parole board hearing was scheduled in 2019.[20]

At a parole board hearing on 24 January 2019, Taylor was granted parole after previously being denied 19 times.[21] He was released on 11 February 2019.[22]

In 2010, Corrections Minister Judith Collins announced that from 1 July 2011, prisons in New Zealand would be smoke free and both prisoners and staff would be banned from smoking.[29] About two thirds of prisoners were smokers and Taylor challenged the ban in court arguing the prison manager had no power under the Corrections Act to introduce the ban. In December 2012, Justice Murray Gilbert ruled that the ban, which by then had been in force for 17 months, was "unlawful, invalid and of no effect".[30] The Government then enacted legislation to make the ban lawful.[31] In January 2013, Taylor filed further proceedings claiming those amendments were also illegal. The High Court ruled in his favour.[32] The Government responded by changing the Corrections Amendment Regulations declaring tobacco and equipment used for smoking tobacco to be unauthorised items. This meant cigarettes, as opposed to smoking, were no longer allowed in prison.[33]

In December 2010 Parliament amended the Electoral Act 1993, extending to all prisoners a prohibition on voting that was formerly restricted to prisoners sentenced to three or more years’ imprisonment. In Taylor v Attorney-General, Taylor sought to have this extension overturned, although before Parliament even passed the bill, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson had declared that “the blanket disenfranchisement of prisoners appears to be inconsistent with Section 12 of the Bill of Rights Act and that it cannot be justified”.[34]

The High Court ruled that the ban on prisoner voting could not be overturned (by the Court) because the legislation had been lawfully passed. However, Justice Ellis described the voting ban as "constitutionally objectionable" and the Court agreed with the Attorney General that the new law was inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.[35] The Attorney-General appealed this decision arguing that the courts did not have jurisdiction to declare a law passed by parliament to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights.[36] The case was reconsidered by the Court of Appeal in May 2017 and dismissed the Attorney General's claim.[37]

In 2013, following his legal action against the smoking ban, TVNZ and other media outlets requested permission from the Corrections Department to interview Taylor in prison. Corrections declined, claiming there were security risks involved.[38] In 2015, Taylor took the case to the Court of Appeal which ruled that the interview could go ahead. In his decision, Justice Harrison said there were numerous mistakes in the Department's decision to refuse the interview and said Corrections apparently did not want to give Taylor a "voice".[39] The Department had spent $86,000 of taxpayers' money in court and legal fees contesting the action.[40]

The Department subsequently had to accept several media requests to speak to him, including one that Radio New Zealand had made in October 2014.[41]

In 2016, Taylor brought a private prosecution for perjury against Witness C, who already had permanent name suppression. Witness C had testified against David Tamihere, leading to Tamihere's conviction for the murders of Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen on the Coromandel Peninsula in 1989. In August 2017, Witness C was found guilty on eight charges of perjury. Taylor was represented in court by lawyer Murray Gibson, who said the verdict called into question everything about Mr Tamihere's conviction.[42] On 25 October 2017, Witness C was sentenced to 8 years 7 months on each of the eight charges of perjury, the sentences to be served concurrently.[43] Witness C's permanent name suppression was revoked on 26 April 2018, and he was revealed as convicted double murderer Roberto Conchie Harris.[44]

Taylor complained to the Ombudsman who conducted a Special Investigation into the way Corrections was managing him. Prison management argued that because staff provided him with an office for his numerous legal issues, Taylor presented a "significant ongoing threat to the security and good order of this institution.” The Ombudsman, Beverley Wakem, said prison management "did not provide any information which showed the risk remained (beyond the original 14 days) and as such, an extension was required".[46]

The Ombudsman also wrote: "The placement of Mr Taylor into the HCU, along with the restrictions imposed by the management plan… was more akin to a punishment regime"[47] and that “Accommodation for those prisoners currently undergoing a period of segregation is well below standard and could be considered cruel and inhuman for the purposes of the Convention against Torture.”[48]