Daughter's fury as killer freed

The daughter of slain South Auckland man Raymond Mullins turns 42 today but she will not be celebrating.

Instead Leigh-Anne Mullins is "pissed off" that one of the women who murdered her father will walk free from prison.

Daniella Bowman has been granted an early release just three months after misleading Parole Board members about her job prospects, something Ms Mullins cannot believe.

"What are they thinking? She's coming out on my birthday and she hasn't even got a job."

In November Bowman told the board she had a job lined up and her employer had agreed to give her a month off work when she was released. In reality, the employer rebuffed the leave request and Bowman resigned.

"To put it frankly, she had lied," the board said in its report.

But in a majority decision, five board members decided Bowman could be released today after being in custody since 1999, the year of the brutal killing her 2-year-old son witnessed. Bowman was 18 at the time.

Sisters Natalie Fenton, who was 15, and Katrina Fenton, who was 19, were also found guilty of murder.

Ms Mullins said she was "ropeable" over today's release, which her family have opposed every year, always making oral submissions at Bowman's parole hearings.

Ms Mullins was in Christchurch for a hearing during the deadly February 2011 earthquake, and last year was in Wellington for another hearing when a strong quake occurred.

"I've been through hell with it. April 1, 1999, my father got murdered. I still remember the day I got the phone call from my aunty telling me [and] I can remember like yesterday when the police handed me dad's warehouse, and the mess in there.

"I had to clean it up - the blood-stained mattress and the blood on the stairs."

The Parole Board said Bowman continued to have good support and, since last year, had had no incidents of prison misconduct and had been drug-free.

Among her release conditions is a ban from visiting Auckland and an order that she can associate or communicate with Katrina and Natalie Fenton only with permission from her probation officer.

Ms Mullins said she would like to see the offenders banned from having any contact with one another. She said she was unhappy that both Bowman and Katrina Fenton have been released into the Wellington area.

Katrina Fenton was granted parole in 2012 and is said to be making good progress on the outside. Natalie Fenton, who remains in jail, stabbed Mr Mullins repeatedly in the chest with his steak knife. Katrina Fenton bashed Mr Mullins over the head with a hammer while Bowman attacked him with a pot.

He was watching television when the attack started. The defence at their trial claimed the girls were defending themselves against his sexual advances, something Ms Mullins rejects.

Bowman will have a progress meeting with the Parole Board later this year. APNZ