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Offender Database Anthony Hitchcock

Anthony Phillip Hitchcock

Alias

.

Offences

Murder of an Oamaru woman with an axe in September 1996 and the indecent assault, unlawful sexual connection and attempted rape of her 12 year old daughter, detaining for sexual purposes, threatening to kill as well as unlawfully taking a car

Victims

Lynette Symon-Hore

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1956

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to preventive detention (and life imprisonment) in December 1996
Parole refused February 2012
Has next hearing February 2013

Background
NZ Herald story here
Parole Board decision here
Parole applications turned down every year from 2006. He was assessed by the Parole Board as a "very high risk" of reoffending at the 2006 hearing and remained a "medium to high risk" of reoffending at the 2012 hearing. A two year postponement order was made in 2008 and parole was denied again in 2010. The Parole Board told Hitchcock "We do not support any proposal which would involve a person at high, or moderate high risk, of reoffending as assessed by the Psychologist being returned to any communities whether in this country or anywhere else." Well said - let's see this filthy predator is never released into society again...

These crimes were committed a mere two months after the offender was released on parole from indecent assault of a young girl.
Data from Sunday Star Times August 2003.

Further info sourced from an Otago Daily Times story
"When Hitchcock first appeared in court, charged with killing an Oamaru woman with an axe. Police were barely able to cope with an angry crowd comprising the woman's friends and relatives, who tried to stop a vehicle carrying him to the rear of the court and abused him when he was inside."

From Christchurch Press story 18/12/1996
A man who murdered an Oamaru woman with an axe and then attempted to rape her 12-year-old daughter was yesterday given indefinite jail sentences. Justice Panckhurst sentenced Anthony Phillip Hitchcock, 40, unemployed, to life imprisonment for murder, and to preventive detention for sexual violation and attempted rape when he appeared in the High Court at Christchurch.

Hitchcock's previous conviction in 1995 for indecent assault on a girl under the age of 12 made him eligible for preventive detention, His Honour said. Hitchcock had then been sentenced to two years, three months jail, and had been on parole for two months when the murder and attempted rape occurred. A psychiatric report said Hitchcock's psycho-sexual development had been distorted at a fundamental stage owing to abuse he had suffered as a boy, His Honour said.

The report concluded there was only a slim chance he could be treated, and that a high likelihood he would reoffend existed. The killing of the woman and the threat to kill the child were aggravating circumstances "as bad as one can imagine", he said. The consequences for the child had been profound. Hitchcock appeared on his guilty pleas to charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, detaining for sexual purposes, attempted rape, threatening to kill, inducing an indecent act, and unlawfully taking a car. The charges arose from an attack in Oamaru on September 21.

Hitchcock's woman victim, with whom he was friendly, had taken him in after he arrived from Auckland without a job. On his second night at the address, after an argument, he attacked the woman with an axe while she was sleeping in her bed. He then woke up the 12-year-old girl, and told her he had killed her mother. He showed the girl the axe, and said he would kill her with it. The girl grabbed the axe, but he took it off her and forced her onto her bed. He sexually violated her, and attempted to rape her. He later took the girl downstairs with a telephone cord around her neck. The episode lasted about two hours.

His Honour said he agreed with a probation report which said the sexual acts were "chillingly focused on domination and self- gratification". He had reached the view that it was appropriate to consider preventive detention in combination with the life sentence because its imposition would be a factor Hitchcock's parole board would need to take into account. Crown counsel Tim Gresson said he was not seeking a minimum parole period because of a Court of Appeal direction that such periods should be used sparingly.

He urged Justice Panckhurst to combine preventive detention with the mandatory life sentence. Hitchcock showed the potential for sudden violence and a propensity to offend against young girls, he said. He was predisposed to explosive behaviour, and had offended while on parole from a prison term during which he had completed a sex offenders' rehabilitation course. Hitchcock's counsel, Mike Radford, said the imposition of preventive detention as well as the inevitable life sentence served no purpose.

There was no practical difference between them, he said. His client had suffered horrific physical abuse from his parents, and had started living on the streets at 15. The cycle of abuse had continued, and Hitchcock was unable to order his own life. Justice Panckhurst gave Hitchcock six years jail on the detention charge, two years for threatening to kill and inducing an indecent act, and six months for unlawful taking. The finite sentences were concurrent.

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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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