SUPPLIED
Basil Steven Marshall Mist has been released on parole after serving nearly all of his sentence for killing Barbara Miller and sexually attacking multiple girls.
A man who killed his partner, but not before using her to help him wage his campaign of sexual offending, has been released on parole without fully coming to grips with why he offended.
Basil Steven Marshall Mist, however, was released early to ensure he could get into a specialist rehabilitation centre before the Christmas season.
Mist has served almost all of a 20-year jail term for the manslaughter of Barbara Miller and raping and sexually violating girls.
Miller, who weighed 41kg and had more than 45 injuries when she was found dead, was repeatedly attacked by Mist.
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People witnessed him threatening and beating her repeatedly, sometimes using knives, with the Court of Appeal saying in a ruling Mist was “perhaps lucky to have been found guilty only of manslaughter”.
Miller’s death brought to an end a spate of sexual offending by Mist, who once made Miller lure a pre-teen girl playing in a park into bushes where he was waiting.
He raped the girl while Miller sat nearby.
Mist was seen by the parole board in October and released on November 23, two months early. Stuff asked for his parole report at the start of November, but it was only provided at the end of the month.
Earlier parole hearings heard Mist was struggling to find somewhere suitable to live on release.
But at the one in October, the board was told Mist had secured a place in supported accommodation and programme management via the intensive reintegration service.
But having him released at the end of his sentence, January 6, would make getting into the facility difficult due to reduced staffing over the Christmas/New Year break.
The board had to weigh up the risk Mist posted against the need to set things up well for his release, as well as the next decade he will spend under an extended supervision order.
“Mr Mist’s violent and sexual offending was particularly serious,” the board said.
“He has not addressed the issues that lay behind that offending on his sentence to date.”
But putting him on parole would ensure a safer transition into the community for Mist after spending much of his life in prison.
While not mentioned in his parole report, someone familiar with the situation told Stuff Mist will be living in the South Island.
His release on parole was earmarked with extensive conditions, many of them mirroring those on his extended supervision order.
He will be electronically monitored, is banned from the lower North Island, cannot consume or possess alcohol and drugs and must tell his probation officer if he starts or finishes an intimate relationship.
He must also get permission to move or start a new job.
He is also banned from contacting his victims, while he cannot associate with any anyone younger than 16 without supervision.
He must also refrain from entering or loitering near schools, early childhood centres, libraries, pools, churches and recreational facilities where children younger than 16 congregate.
