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Offender Database Phillip Smith

Phillip John Smith

Alias

Phillip John Traynor
Stacey Beavers

Offences

Repeated sexual violation of a 13 year old boy, then murdered his father in Johnsonville, Wellington in December 1995
Also kidnapped the boy’s mother and brother and had been stalking the boy while on remand in Rimutaka prison
A lengthy history of other offending including aggravated assault, firearms offences, driving offences, using a document for pecuniary advantage,
attempted arson, misuse of a cellphone, cultivation of cannabis, escaping police custody and blackmail

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1974

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to a minimum 13 years in August 1996
Parole declined February 2011
Next hearing February 2013 after it has been deferred for two years

Background
NZ Herald story here
Radio NZ story here regarding his latest parole refusal/deferral
This excellent piece from Rosemary McLeod here gives further background
Yahoo Xtra story here
Last parole board decision documented here
Supreme Court decision here (PDF)

From the Dominion 20th December 1996
Phillip John Smith, found guilty in the High Court at Wellington of murder, burglary, kidnapping and sexual violation, has lost appeals against conviction and sentence. In July, a jury took eight hours to decide Smith's guilt for the murder of the father of a boy he molested, aggravated burglary of the family's Wellington house and six charges of molesting the boy. Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 13-year non-parole period for the murder of the father, five years in jail for the burglary, four years and eight years for the sexual violation charges, five years for each of four indecent assault and indecent act charges, and three years for each of two kidnapping charges. The burglary and kidnapping sentences were concurrent with each other but cumulative on the sexual abuse charges.

Smith appealed against the convictions and sentences for the murder and the sexual offences. The appeal summary described how Smith, then 21, became friendly with the boy he molested, then 12. Their relationship involved indecent touching, masturbation, oral sex and attempted anal intercourse. He had told the boy that if he told anyone about the abuse, something bad would happen to his family. When the boy finally told his family, fears of Smith led to their relocation by government agencies. However, Smith had found them, cut their telephone lines and broken into their house armed with a hunting knife. Smith's appeal of the murder conviction said that the trial judge had inadequately put the defence of self-defence to the jury.

However, in a judgment delivered by Justice Thomas, the Appeal Court ruled that all the main elements required to establish the defence had been covered. On the sexual violation and indecency charges, Smith contended that the judge had wrongly restricted cross-examination of the son about whether he held Smith's phone number. Justice Thomas said that the issue was irrelevant and without bearing on the crown case. A third ground of appeal related to allegedly fresh evidence being available: Smith had produced a detailed document giving his version of the events in relation to the murder and sexual offence charges. Smith contended that there was no sexual abuse of the son and that the father's death was either a result of self-defence or occurred without murderous intent.

Justice Thomas summarised this as an allegation that much of the evidence given at the trial - especially evidence given by the wife - was untrue. "This court has reiterated on numerous occasions that evidence will only be allowed after the conclusion of a trial if it is fresh and cogent," he said. "This evidence is clearly neither." On the appeal against the abuse sentences, he said the imprisonments were appropriate for "a long course of sexual abuse of a young victim, more particularly as threats were made to keep the abuse secret". For the sentence for murder, Smith submitted that the murder was "not exceptional" and therefore did not warrant a non-parole period of 13 years. "We disagree," Justice Thomas said. "This was a particularly nasty murder involving breaking into a household in the early hours of the morning, cutting the telephone lines, savagely attacking the father, stabbing the eldest son, and intimidating the family."

From Dominion Post story 18th July 2003
The sister of a slain Wellington man says dismissing the killer's second appeal does not end the ordeal for her family. Phillip John Smith's appeal against having to serve at least 13 years of a life jail term was dismissed in the Court of Appeal yesterday. In 1995 Smith stalked the family of a boy he had sexually abused, when they fled from Wairarapa to Johnsonville after the abuse was exposed. He hid a gun on a nearby property, and returned the following week to wait three hours in a laundry before breaking into the house in the middle of the night and stabbing the boy's father to death. Court of Appeal judge Justice Tipping said Smith had "psychologically tortured" the victim's wife, holding her at knifepoint so she could not get help for the dying man.

The murdered man was not named to prevent identification of his son. After the court decision yesterday, the dead man's sister said the outcome was some relief but did not mean she could close the book on Smith's crimes. When the 13 years was up she intended opposing Smith's release on parole. "My family deserves to live without the worry of him," she told The Dominion Post after yesterday's court hearing. The fact that Smith did not accept the sentence meant he was still in denial and a danger to her family. Her sister-in-law had to live every day with the memory of hearing her husband choking on his own blood. The boy who was abused had wanted to attend the Court of Appeal hearing but was not strong enough. Instead, she attended and wrote a letter to the court setting out the family's feelings and the continuing effect of Smith's crimes.

She was not impressed with Smith's lawyer saying Smith was less to blame than previously thought because he had post-traumatic stress disorder from being a child sex abuse victim himself. The sister said it was the first time her family had heard of the claim. She thought it was an excuse, and a weak one at that. Smith's lawyer, Greg King, said by 1996 standards the life term was enough by itself, without the 13-year non-parole period. "Life imprisonment is a heck of a sentence," Mr King said. "Well, this was a heck of a crime," Justice Tipping replied. Smith abandoned an attempt to overturn his convictions. His first appeal was dismissed in December 1996. His case was one of about 1500 that a Privy Council decision last year potentially reopened. The Court of Appeal was found to have used a flawed process to deal with criminal appeals in which legal aid was refused.

Also From Brian Harmer's WYSIWYG News December 1995
Wellingtonians were disturbed at their breakfast and on their way to work by police searching for a 21 year old man who, it is alleged, broke into the Johnsonville home of a family known to him, and stabbed a 13 year old boy. His father grappled with the assailant, and was himself fatally stabbed. The boy escaped, and struggled the half kilometre to the Johnsonville police station.

The intruder initially took the victim's wife and another son hostage, but realised that they were hampering his escape, so abandoned them unharmed. Police searched on foot, by car, and at roadblocks. A helicopter startled many residents of Northern suburbs as it cruised by houses at window level, with binocular equipped police peering out the doors. The foot search discovered a discarded rifle in one of the rail tunnels on the Johnsonville line, and the search switched to the rail system. Despite extensive roadblocks, and the hovering helicopter, the offender evaded police and boarded a train at Upper Hutt, bound for Masterton. A railway employee recognised the man from his description

(July 1996)
Phillip Smith, 22, was convicted of the knife murder of a Johnsonville man who was protecting his son from attack after an allegation of sexual abuse against Smith. He is remanded for sentencing until August 16. There is considerable backlash, fuelled by bitter police comments, against two judges who against strong urging to the contrary, released Smith on bail. According to police, Smith had earlier convictions for violence and extortion, and was a danger to the son of the murdered man and his family.

Justice Minister Doug Graham was quick to point out that judges are called upon to make bail decisions every day and the number of violent offences committed while the perpetrator was on bail was small.
Court of Appeal decision here (mistitled as being Queen vs Jamie George Dagg)

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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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