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Offender Databases Robert Smith

Robert Leslie Smith

Alias

.

Offences

Murder of retired Temuka man Dennis Hind in January 1997

Victims

Dennis Hind

Offender Affiliations

Michelle Nicolson
Smith was the primary offender

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1979

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1997
Was to be released June 2008 but quickly rescinded after possessing a cellphone while inside
Parole approved November 2009

Background
NZ Herald story here
Timaru Herald story here
A South Canterbury man got an unpleasant shock at the weekend when he discovered from a newspaper article that the couple convicted of his brother's murder are due to be considered for parole. Rob Kerr reports. Discovering through the media, rather than the parole board, that his brother's murderers are up for parole has angered South Canterbury man Vallence Hind.

He said the family should have been told Michelle Richards and Robert Smith, who killed Dennis Hind in January 1997, had upcoming parole hearings. "This whole parole situation is an utter disgrace. Before it came in the paper, we should have been informed as a family three or four days beforehand that this was to come up. When I have to find out from my wife's sister calling up, well, that is bloody despicable." Richards, who is serving her time in Christchurch Women's Prison, is up for possible parole next month. and the news has brought the Hind family's grief to the surface.

From the Sunday Star Times 5th November 2006
Almost 10 years after being jailed as a heroin addicted killer, Michelle Richards takes more than remorse to the parole board. Deidre Mussen reports. Michelle Richards radiates pride in her newest label: university graduate. It beats the hell out of murderer, prostitute and junkie. These days, the only thing she wants to score is top marks. Her framed Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in psychology and sociology hangs above her bed.

A computer clutters a corner, text books fill the bookshelf and a mobile of origami peace cranes flutters in the breeze. Out the window towering fences topped with razor wire block her body but not her mind. This 44-year-old Timaru woman has spent nearly a decade at Christchurch Women's Prison for murdering retired Temuka bank manager Dennis Hind, 62, in January 1997. She lived with Hind for 18 months. Her three children also moved in. When he changed his will in her favour, his family was aghast.

Richards' trial heard that inheritance money motivated her to ask then 18-year-old Robert Smith, who was her lover, to kill Hind. He is serving a life sentence for brutally stabbing him to death in his bed. Now, Richards has become one of a handful of inmates to gain a degree while incarcerated. In an even more unusual step, she is likely to be allowed out of prison each day to start fulltime post graduate studies at Canterbury University next year.

So what prompted a self-confessed heroin addict on her seventh jail term to crave education not drugs? It began, says Richards, three years into her life sentence when prisoners' smuggled drug supply dried up, forcing long periods of abstinence. "I started enjoying being clear-headed. With that came the knowledge of what I'd done. I decided I would be drug-free and would try to make myself a better person. I'm guilty of inciting a heinous crime. The only thing I can change about it is me. Obviously that might be cold comfort to (Hind's) family."

Richards, convicted of murder under her former married name Nicholson, says she sought insight into her own behaviour and that of other criminals. It's taken her six years and serious grit to gain a degree by correspondence through Massey University. She credits her case officer, Ian Ingham, as her guiding light. "He is the epitome of what a corrections officer should be." Prison staff are supportive, giving her flexibility with her jail responsibilities to fit in studies and exams. When the jail's printer failed, some prison officers printed her assignments at home so she met her deadlines.

And when her degree arrived in the post sans fanfare, prison staff framed it for her and celebrated her success. Richards left Timaru Girls' High School at 16 in 1978 with three School Certificate subjects. Her slide into drugs began in her teens and she blames her drug use for her long list of convictions. Studying in jail has its challenges. Internet access is banned and she can't just walk into a library for resources, although Massey posts books out to extra-mural students.

While a prison education fund and the Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society have helped pay her fees for a few papers, Richards has a student loan to cover most of her university costs. Prison manager Wayne McKnight says her turn-around is inspirational. "From where she was to where she is, she's given herself the best possible opportunity to succeed when she gets out." Her academic achievements have also given her three children, now 25, 22 and 15, something to be proud of. "My son has a copy of my degree on his fridge like a parent with their child's kindergarten painting.

I'm so thankful they are prepared to give me a second chance," Richards says. She comes from an average working class family and says her children have steered clear of crime. "I'm an aberrant glitch in my family tree." She will appear in front of the Parole Board at the end of the month for the first time. "I have written in my board letter saying `Can anyone ever really atone for murder?' I honestly don't know the answer to that but I know I'm different now.

"It's really difficult to reconcile the fact I get a second chance through what I did. But I decided years ago I couldn't change what had happened. Can you make it better? I'm buggered if I know but I'll spend the rest of my life trying somehow to honour Dennis' memory and making sure I'm never involved in anything like that again." Her ultimate goal is a PhD, focusing on female offenders, including rehabilitation, intervention and reducing recidivism. She believes encouraging inmates to learn is vital and offers hope they will exit jail a productive member of society. "I want to help create a paradigm shift away from a vengeance focus to rehabilitation.

If we, as a society, damn a whole section of our populace as unredeemable, what does that mean? Jail is totally necessary in any society -there has to be punishment for bad actions but instead of the focus being locking them up and doing nothing, because that breeds resentment, it is better to offer hope - courses, education and a future. "It's a lot easier to sit on your arse and smoke cigarettes in your cell than have a good look at yourself, to make changes, to learn - that's the hard option."

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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