korero

graeme burton said.....

My name is Graeme William Burton and this is my version of events relating to my release on parole. I was released on parole on July 10, 2006, after spending approximately 14 years in prison on a life sentence. I was looking forward to getting out and starting a new life. I intended this to go well.
The New Zealand Parole Board set out a number of conditions that were part of my release on parole. One of the conditions was that I reside in a suburb in Wellington. The flat was a one- bedroom flat and part of a block of four flats. My flat was the bottom one. Access to the flat was difficult.
My birth mother was required to live with me for the first month of my release. I had met my mother about 12 times while in prison. It was okay living with her for about the first two weeks. When my mother arrived from Australia we went into an empty house. There was no furniture, no beds. She slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for the first three days. I slept on the floor with only a blanket; however, I didn't sleep for the first three days. It was also the adrenaline rush of freedom that didn't allow me to sleep.
It was July and freezing in the middle of winter and a cold snap at that time. We had no power for a week.
I had no ID and couldn't open a bank account for two weeks. I couldn't cash my Steps to Freedom. My mother had to get the cheque changed into her name. I had no history with any bank and no credit rating with any power company. I didn't exist. Finally I got a letter from my probation officer and convinced a bank branch that I needed an account and opened one. My mother had to open a power account for me.
The sensory deprivation of 14 years in jail made me have heightened senses. Everything around me I noticed. I missed nothing. The colours were brighter.
My mother took me around to the Salvation Army Hope Centre in Newtown. We saw a fella who said he'd sort stuff out and send around to the flat later. The furniture took a few days to arrive. My mother and me set up the flat. The Salvation Army donated the furniture.
The bed that arrived was no good – the springs had gone and it wrecked my back. I was used to the prison hard beds.
In the first two weeks things went okay. Then we both started to feel holed up in the one-bedroom flat. We started getting at each other a little to begin with. I didn't really know her to live with. She didn't expect me to be so intense. She was quite relaxed.
I was racing around town because I felt under immense pressure by Probation because I had all the probation and parole conditions to keep to. All this had to be done by Friday July 14, 2006.
I met my probation officer on the second day at the probation office in Newtown.
I couldn't even get my Work and Income payment as I had no bank account. My mother gave me the money to start with, as I didn't have any of my own at all. I was given a food voucher for $100 when I got out of prison but it had to be used on the day that I got out of jail and we didn't have time to get the food. It expired at the end of the first day and so we had no food. We never got any other voucher to replace it.
I was on the unemployment benefit to begin with, which was $160. This changed to a student allowance after a while. It was difficult to sort out the student allowance as my mother had gone by then. It was difficult to get an appointment at Study Links halfway through the year. I was at school at this time studying at the New Zealand Institute of Sport.
On the first day when I moved into the flat I said "hello" to my neighbour. He just grunted at me and slammed the door. The neighbour was crazy. He would bang on the wall whenever he heard the slightest noise in my flat. He'd just start banging.
He'd hear us come home – we'd be really quiet not to disturb him at first. He banged at anytime. It could be 4am and he'd bang for hours. He really loved to do loud power kicks and punches at the wall.
This scared my mother and my auntie when she came to visit, especially when they found out he went into another neighbour's house and pulled a knife and threatened to kill them. I talked to one of the other neighbours and they had the same problems with the crazy man. The flat I was in was empty for the previous nine months because of this mad guy.
I told the probie about the mad neighbour and that he'd threaten to kill the other neighbour and about my concern for my mother's safety. It was a high-risk situation as well as a highly confrontational situation. I asked the probation officer to move me every time I visited the probation office once a week. The probation officer tried to get me moved because of the bad access as I had problems with my leg. I had to get a medical certificate and couldn't afford the $40 to see a doctor. When I knew my neighbour was like he was I started arming myself and preparing myself mentally for when he was going to stab me and a possible confrontation.
This guy wouldn't talk, wouldn't communicate, he refused to. This did my head in, living next to a psycho. I got to a point where I'd had enough. He threatened to kill me. The opportunity arose to get a Mossberg Maverick pump action shotgun for protection against him and former enemies.
I said to the probie: "I'm going to kill my neighbour, he's keeping me awake and I'm losing it. I want to go back to jail. Put me in jail until you can get me another house."
She said: "You don't mean that." I said: "I'm going to kill him." I looked her straight in the eye and said " Yes I do." She goes: "You'd have to be recalled to go back to jail and have to commit a crime to do so." I said: " F . . . that. It took me 4½ years to get out the last time and will take 10 years to get out this time. I don't want to commit a crime."
And she'd said: "You don't mean that you're doing well and being honest with me and expressing yourself and by telling me means you're not going to do it." She was all happy. I said: "Well then I may as well go hard on the crime." I quit the course I had been doing for two months. The probie said I had to get a job. The probie thought I was venting my frustrations and didn't take me seriously. I had a pump action shotgun at this stage two months after my mother went home. I was getting no sleep because the crazy man would keep me awake.
I was trapped in my flat. I couldn't go out as Work and Income were taking money back for grants they gave me when I got out of jail. They said I owed $560. The probie sorted this out and I still ended up owing them money. After Work and Income took the money I was left with $69 a week for everything – bus fare to school, food, clothing, medical expenses and phone. I had to pay $200 in three weeks for medical expenses and I couldn't survive on the $69 so I couldn't pay the bills. If you can't pay the bills there is no medical treatment. I was in pain. You have to pay on leaving so I couldn't attend to my medical needs. I needed to be able bodied for my sports course........read more.

you can get the idea. doomed from the start. interesting how he refers to the neighbour as crazy. the response from the system is interesting.

Labels: graeme burton, kill, parole board, shotgun

posted by mystified @ 9:41 am