Bell's attacker avoids preventive detention

RSA murderer William Bell was attacked with a home-made weapon. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A convicted murderer who stabbed Auckland RSA triple-killer William Bell in the eye has avoided an indefinite prison sentence.

Dean Shepherd, 49, last year admitted a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following the attack on Bell in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo in December 2007.

The attack with a sharpened metal rod at Bell's eye left Bell with internal bleeding in his head, a fractured eye socket and numerous contusions to his skull and face.

Shepherd said he made the attack partly because Bell had been gloating about his previous offending and had been making derogatory remarks about his victims, and because Bell had been threatening him in prison.

The court heard that Shepherd had sharpened the rods and put them in a bucket he had taken with him while he was on cleaning duties. He attacked Bell, the sole occupant of a prison telephone room, as he was making a phone call.

Shepherd is already serving a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17-1/2 years for the murder of his landlady Darunee Aphiromlerk.

The Crown had originally sought a sentence of preventive detention for Shepherd's attack on Bell.

But Crown prosecutor Brett Tantrum noted in submissions today that reports from a psychologist and a psychiatrist both said it was hard to predict if Shepherd was at high risk of committing further violent offences, due to his being ineligible for release until 2022, when he will be 61.

Justice Pamela Andrews said one of the conditions of such a sentence was that the offender was likely to commit further violent offences, and the length of time before his eligibility for release made it difficult to be sure of that.

She said two reports said there was some reason to be optimistic for Shepherd's future, noting he had responded to medication and had been incident-free for the past three years.

But she added the reports also said he had shown limited insight into his offending.

Justice Andrews sentenced Shepherd to 10 years' imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of five years, both to be served concurrently with his life sentence.

Mr Tantrum said outside court that by law a judge could not impose a cumulative sentence upon a prisoner serving a life sentence.

Bell is serving a life sentence with a 30-year minimum non-parole period - New Zealand's longest - for the murder of William Absolum, 63, Mary Hobson, 44 and Wayne Johnson, 56, during a robbery at the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA in 2004.

- NZPA