Flickers of concern remain for Barlow

BY EMILY WATT

The last time double murderer John Barlow appeared before the Parole Board, his bid for freedom was stymied by what the board called a "breathtaking" and "completely inappropriate attitude to guns".

A year on, the board's focus has turned to a stolen paper dust mask, cigarette trading, and how he would handle meeting the victims' family in a restaurant.

If Barlow genuinely believes, as he has staunchly maintained for 16 years, that he did not commit the 1994 murders of Wellington businessmen Gene and Eugene Thomas, these questions must be irksome indeed.

He still professes his innocence but, after failing in his appeal to the Privy Council last year, he says he has accepted he will forever be considered a murderer.

"I can't change it. One has to accept such things and move on," he told the board last week.

Now, assessed as a low risk of re-offending and having served his time, the 64-year-old is waiting eagerly at the prison gates.

By law, if a prisoner has served the minimum time and is deemed to be a low risk to community safety, they must be freed. But the board is treading carefully.

The Dominion Post was granted exclusive permission, with Barlow's blessing, to attend.

Aside from a home visit, an escorted trip to the shops, and some work cutting walking tracks in a prison work gang, it has been 15 years since Barlow was last outside the wire.

His hair is now white and his face has aged, but he remains slim and fit, smart and well-mannered. He believes that, having kept up with news of the outside world and with the support of his wife and family, he will adjust easily back into society.

At the last hearing a year ago, Barlow came unstuck during a round of questioning about his former use of guns.

"Having a gun gives confidence," he said then. "It's very rare that they have to be produced and even rarer that they have to be fired."

The board described his attitude as, "in the circumstances, breathtaking" and denied him parole.

When questioned this time, he seemed to satisfy a psychiatrist with his answers.

He was categorical: "I will have no difficulty whatsoever with never having a thing to do with firearms again."

Questions turned to his behaviour in prison. When he last appeared, he had a 14-year blemish-free record. Now there have been some blemishes.

The board accepted that his misconduct for accidentally taking a paper dust mask from the joinery back to his cell was relatively insignificant.

But they were "considerably more concern[ed]" by reports he had been trading cigarettes – something that is banned in prison. The non-smoker was supplying other prisoners with cigarettes in exchange for money, more cigarettes, or food for a number of years.

He said, and was supported by his lawyer Greg King and a prison guard, that cigarettes were a currency in prison. By trading them for food he saved young smokers from the standover tactics of the gang heavies who normally run the cigarette trade. When prison staff told him to stop, he stopped instantly.

The board then focused on his character and his self-awareness. A 2008 psychological report concluded Barlow had a sense of superiority and described him as being arrogant, demanding and controlling. These must be difficult charges to defend for a man from the business world where such traits can be considered valuable.

When asked to comment on the assessment that he was manipulative and cunning, he seemed exasperated. "Most people will try to arrange their affairs and their circumstances to best suit them. To that degree, I do what any intelligent person would do," he said. "Manipulative implies deceit and I don't think I've ever been deceitful."

But his responses to questions about what he would do if he inadvertently met members of the Thomas family caused the board flickers of concern.

He was asked what he would do if he was dining in a restaurant and the Thomas family came in. His parole conditions stipulate no contact with them. He struggled to see that the onus would be on him to leave the restaurant. "You'd just go on with your meal in a normal civilised way," he said.

When asked about bumping into them in the street, he said: "I would not anticipate any problems. The family were particularly nice and very civilised people. There would be no shouting or ugly scenes in the street. There would be nothing. No problem."

The Thomas family did not attend the hearing. Some have written to the board that they do not believe he should be freed until he admits his guilt. But Gene's son Martin, who lives on an island in Nicaragua, has said in an interview he harbours no animosity to John Barlow.

Speaking in the third person, he told a reporter: "Martin doesn't see any benefit to seeking revenge for what happened."

Barlow's graceful wife, Angela, who has stood resolutely by him, was at the hearing with their daughter Keryn and Barlow's sister, Anne. At one stage, the three of them broke down in tears when they spoke of wanting him home.

"We've been trying for 15 years to get John home," Angela Barlow told the board. "I've been on standby if you like, I feel like I've been in prison as well. I just want him home."

He seemed close, but the Parole Board was not ready to let him go.

"Mr Barlow is supremely confident about his ability to slip back into the family fold and to lead a pro-social existence. But we have reservations," the report said. "At this stage he poses an undue risk to the safety of the community."

Speaking yesterday, Mrs Barlow said the decision was devastating. "There's no risk," she said. "They said there was a risk, but they don't give a reason."

His one visit home had been great, she said. "It was almost as if those 15 years melted away and he'd never left."

The years of waiting, of hopes raised and hopes dashed had been excruciating, and running the household alone exhausting.

They will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary next month apart, but she was optimistic that, at the next board hearing in six months, she would have him home.

"We're as confident as we can be that he'll be out then. But we never can be sure."

Businessmen shot in the head

The discovery of the bodies of Wellington father and son businessmen Gene and Eugene Thomas – shot execution-style in their CBD office – gripped a city and started an investigation that was to centre around a $3 tip receipt.

The men's bodies were found in their Invincible Life Insurance office on The Terrace, one hot February evening in 1994. Gene, 68, was found dead in the conference room with a single bullet to the head. His son Eugene, 30, was found lying face up in a pool of blood in the foyer of their office, shot once in the head and once in the back.

John Barlow, an antiques dealer, had a meeting scheduled with the men that day. He was seen leaving the building and admitted seeing the bodies but was adamant he was not guilty.

Barlow was soon top of the police suspect list and officers searching his car found his $3 receipt for Happy Valley landfill. At the tip, they found a box of bullets that they said matched the bullets found at the scene, a gun they believed was the murder weapon and a silencer.

Barlow admitted the weapons were his, but went public on television declaring his innocence. He was arrested on June 23 but two juries were unable to convict him and it was not till a third trial that he was convicted, in November 1995.

He was sentenced to 14 years but has resolutely maintained he did not do it.

He appealed against the conviction, and took his case to the Privy Council basing his case on expert FBI evidence introduced in the third trial that forensically linked the bullets found at the tip with those found at the murder scene. The method used has since been discredited worldwide, and in the United States several convicted murderers jailed on that basis have since been freed.

The British law lords made the rare move of agreeing to hear the case, but declined it last August saying though the FBI evidence was "unscientific and untenable", other evidence against him was "overwhelming".

- © Fairfax NZ News