Rapist released on ground of compassion

Press, 22 September 1984, Page 8

Rapist released on ground of compassion

PA Auckland A man convicted of rape and serving a nine-year sentence at Paremoremo maxi-mum-security prison has

been released on compassionate grounds. Henare Terence Dewes, imprisoned for nine years in 1982 for raping and rendering unconscious a young Hamilton woman, has been given a six-month temporary release because he is suffering from cancer of the mouth.

Dewes was sentenced to seven years for rape and two years for strangling the women, aged 19, with a horse bridle. He was released from Paremoremo on the authority of the Attorney-General and of the Secretary for Justice.

Mr Jim Porter, a divisional officer at the prison, said last evening that Dewes had been “temporarily paroled to his home” for of six months, and would be under the care of the Probation Service. He said Dewes had been released under section 21 of the Penal Institution Act.

“You could say it was compassionate,” he said. Dewe’s lawyer, Mr Eb

Leary, last evening described the decision as courageous. "This chap is most unwell, you would not find someone more unwell, and I am intensely impressed with the Minister. The man has got real compassion. “It would have been easy to take the soft option and allow him to die in prison.” Mr .Leary said he was satisfied Dewes’ release was entirely safe. In March, 1972, Dewes was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for the rape of two young women in their Mount Eden home some months earlier.

Two years earlier, he had taken a Thames girl, aged 13, from her bedroom one night, but ran off when she screamed.

The Minister of Justice, Mr Palmer, said that it was customary for inmates suffering from a terminal illness to be released from prison. Discussions on the release of Dewes were already under way when Mr Palmer took office after the July election.