Kylie's family vow to fight on

BY JOHN EDENS

The man who has served 18 years in jail for the rape and murder of Owaka schoolgirl Kylie Smith is to go before the Parole Board in June.

Kylie was 15. Paul David Bailey was on bail for attempted rape at the time.

Her father, Bevan Smith, said yesterday he was determined to continue his fight to keep Bailey behind bars.

Mr Smith said the Corrections Department had sent a letter to his family this week giving notice of the impending hearing.

The Smiths would write to the department to ask for updated information on Bailey's case since the last parole hearing in 2007. The convicted killer had not taken part in prison-based courses or rehabilitation programmes, he said.

Mr Smith said he hoped to secure another three-year parole hearing postponement, but yesterday the Parole Board administrative manager, Alistair Spierling, said that was unlikely.

If parole was denied, Bailey would likely appear before the board again in a year.

Bailey's initial non-parole period was 10 years.

A disappointed Mr Smith said he and his family might have to fight for the rest of their lives to keep Bailey behind bars.

Parole hearings were a little more user-friendly than they used to be but the family remained as frustrated with the legal system today as they were 19 years ago, he said. "It's a massive revenue-gathering system for lawyers. The legal system is just a processing factory."

The family, with help from the Sensible Sentencing Trust, had tried to inspire change.

"I believe the politicians are sitting up and taking notice. They just shrugged us off before, but they underestimated our determination."

When asked how he and his wife, along with son Ryan, 34, coped, he said the family lived with Kylie's death every day.

"Premeditated murder should be treated with a life sentence. The system is simply not working; crime rates are increasing at an alarming rate," he said.

Sensible Sentencing Trust national spokesman Garth McVicar yesterday called for "life to mean life" for offenders such as Bailey.

"We say we're a caring and compassionate country but we're not. In this country the offenders have more rights."

When asked if he thought the board might release Bailey, he said it would be stupid to free a convicted murderer and rapist but he would not rule it out.

British-born Bailey was sentenced to life imprisonment in February 1992 for Kylie's brutal murder near Owaka.

The 15-year-old was horse riding after school on November 1, 1991, when she was stopped by Bailey, who was driving around Owaka township with a loaded .22-calibre semi-automatic rifle.

He stopped to talk to the teenager, produced the gun and forced her into the car, before driving her north. On the drive out of town, at speed, Bailey forced a car into a ditch and crashed into a second vehicle driven by a tourist.

He then drove to Painted Rock, where Kylie was taken into the bush and forced to undress at gunpoint.

She was raped before being shot in the back of the head and twice behind the ear.

When questioned by police, Bailey refused to talk. He was convicted and sentenced to life for murder and 13 years for rape.

In July 2005 he was sentenced to three years' jail, to be served concurrently, after he admitted twice raping one of two sisters he befriended in Ettrick.

One month before killing Kylie, Bailey had been charged with the attempted rape of a 12-year-old girl in Ettrick. He was on bail, including a condition that he live in Ettrick, at the time of the killing near Owaka.

In April 1989, Bailey's 8-week-old daughter, Linda Rose, was put to bed on a bench beside a lit stove.

An element set the cot on fire, engulfing the child, who was plucked from the flames and plunged into a cold bath.

She died in Dunedin Hospital a day later. An inquest has never been held.

Bailey's hearing date has not been set.

- © Fairfax NZ News