Despite Evaluation That He “Possess A High Risk Of Reoffending” Parole Board Early Releases Skinhead Who Violently Killed 14 Year Old Boy In 1999 Anti-Gay Attack

The New Zealand Sunday Star Times reports on the early release of 36 year old Jason Morris Meads, a skinhead who murdered a teen in a savage gay hate crime despite being assessed as "posing a high risk of reoffending.” Meads was sentenced to life imprisonment in December, 1999 for the murder of 14-year-old Jeff Whittington, along with Meads' accomplice, Steven James Smith. Meads and Smith picked the boy up outside the Shell station May 8th, 1999, offering him a ride home, but instead driving him to Inverlochy Place. There they assaulted him by punching and kicking him, causing severe facial and head injuries, and abdominal injuries causing a perforated bowel. Boot marks were found on his skull after one of the defendants jumped on his head. Whittington later died in Wellington hospital of brain swelling and perforations to his bowel. Smith and Meads then went to the Kensington Inn on Kensington Rd before going home. When they got home, they told one of the people there that they had "fucked up a faggot and left him for dead,” Meads adding "The faggot was bleeding out of places I have never seen before,” an assertion accompanied by Smith’s laughter. Prior to his release March 7th, 2011, the Parole Board, at a hearing February 18th, said that Meads’ conviction followed a history of versatile and increasingly serious offending which started when he was 16-years-old. It says that while Meads has taken positive steps while in prison to address the causes of his offending, the journey has been problematic, including running a tax scam from Rimutaka Prison in 2007, breaching his release to work rules in 2009 by returning to his unit with chewing gum and batteries, and being found using a cell phone in January this year. The Parole Board says it had a lengthy discussion with Meads about the cell phone incident and was not satisfied that it affected his risk. It says based on static factors Meads is in fact assessed as posing a high risk of reoffending, but that “This is unlikely to change while in custody,” concluding “However, we are satisfied that with the very strong support that he has in the community both from family members and friends, his clear view of the future, his commitment to change and mature outlook, that risk can be appropriately managed in the community. We accept that Mr Meads has matured during the course of his incarceration. He is a good worker and is keen to work. However, he needs ongoing interaction with a psychologist to assist him in his reintegration into society and to discuss potential obstacles before they arise. He is very aware of the part that alcohol abuse played in his offending and is determined not to consume alcohol in the foreseeable future. He is also resolved to abstain from illicit drugs.” According to the conditions of his release, for the following five years he must attend alcohol and drug assessment and counselling, have psychological assessment and counselling and must not engage in any employment or volunteer work, paid or unpaid, without the prior written approval of the Probation Officer. Green MP Kevin Hague, an openly gay member of parliament, condemned Mead’s release, saying his “crime was a brutal hate-murder that sickened the nation and for which, so far as I am aware, he has never expressed any remorse. During his time in prison he has committed both major [tax fraud] and minor breaches of rules, including in the very recent past during work release, so it's hard to see how the board can possibly have any confidence that this will stop now that he has been released. The Green Party is strongly committed to restorative justice, and to rehabilitation where that isn't possible, and believe these should be the focuses of the Corrections system."