Schoolgirl killer says sorry

KENT BLECHYNDEN/Dominion Post

THE HARDEST WORD: Gary Duffin with a photgraph of his daughter Karla Cardno. After 18 years, Karla's killer, Paul Dally, has finally apologised to her family - but it won't help him get out of jail.

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Eighteen years after he tortured and raped her, the man who killed schoolgirl Karla Cardno has finally apologised to her family.

Paul Joseph Dally, serving a life sentence for Karla's murder, has broken nearly two decades of silence and apparent denial - at one stage claiming he could not remember abducting her - to say he is "truly sorry" for what he did to the Lower Hutt 13-year-old.

The former detective who headed the case is sceptical of Dally's motive, but Karla's father Gary Duffin said the apology was a major turning point for him. "That was one of the big things that I couldn't let go - that he didn't contact anyone in the family and didn't offer an apology.

"I had wanted him to stay there. He wasn't showing any remorse."

Mr Duffin said the apology suggested Dally had at last owned up to what he did "and maybe there's a touch of compassion there".

"To be honest with you, I really want to try to forgive this guy, even though he did what he did to my daughter. That he did say sorry is part of me trying to forgive.

"The hard part of it all, I feel very sorry for Karla really. The way she lost her life. No one deserves that."

Dally became eligible for parole in 1999 but has now been refused for the seventh time. He remains in segregation in an Auckland prison, facing ongoing threats from both within and outside jail.

Dally appeared before the Parole Board last month and the decision says he has made little progress since his last appearance: "His risk remains unduly high in our view of something else terrible happening if he were released," the decision says. It notes the murder is infamous and for Karla's family the "outrage and despair" continues.

The board plans to take the unusual step at the next hearing of postponing his annual hearing by up to three years. Such orders are made only about five times a year for offenders unlikely to make any significant change by the time they are next due to be considered.

Dally snatched Karla as she rode a bike home from a dairy in the suburb of Taita just after 7pm on May 26, 1989. He raped and tortured her in his nearby home - watching from the window as Karla's family and friends frantically searched for her. One family member knocked on Dally's door during the search but did not get a reply.

Eventually he threw her into the boot of his car and drove to the Pencarrow coast where he bludgeoned her with a piece of driftwood and buried her a metre deep beneath the sand.

Dally was arrested six weeks later, and eventually led police to her grave. Police believed she had been tortured for at least 22 hours.

Karla's murder sparked national outrage. Her stepfather Mark Middleton was arrested for threatening to kill Dally in 1999 in comments made to the media. He was convicted and received a nine-month suspended prison term but gained huge public support.

The board's latest decision notes that Dally was asked how he would feel if his victim's family was present: "He says that he would like to say how truly sorry he was for what he had done and he is doing the best that he can now to change himself for the future. We record that for what it is worth."

Former detective senior sergeant John Marsden, who headed the murder inquiry, said he thought Dally had an ulterior motive for the apology - to get parole. "If he was going to say sorry I would have thought he'd say it within the last 18 years," he said.

Mr Marsden, who left the force soon after the murder, said it was one of the worst crimes he had seen in his career. "It still affects me personally."

He believed Dally should never be freed: "I wouldn't like him around when any of my family are around, that's for sure. There's only one place for him."

Another senior officer on the case, former detective senior sergeant Mike Small, who secured Dally's confession, was surprised by the apology and said it was a positive step forward.

After Dally confessed he went back into his shell and never spoke of it again. "He's just buried it away inside himself forever," Mr Small said. "If he's now saying sorry to some extent, that has got to be good. And if it helps the family, as I hope it does, that's the best news for me."

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