Families not consulted on Watson's prison move

1.00pm

Convicted double murderer Scott Watson has been moved to Christchurch Prison to be nearer his Picton family.

The move has been criticised by National Party law and order spokesman Tony Ryall who said the family of Watson's victims should have been consulted.

Watson, who is serving at least 17 years for killing Ben Smart and Olivia Hope who vanished in the Marlborough Sounds on New Year's Day 1998, had been in Auckland's maximum security Paremoremo Prison.

Watson's mother Bev said the initiative to have him moved south nearly two weeks ago was a combined move by Watson and prison authorities to get him closer to his family.

"He is a South Islander, not a North Islander. We are all in the South Island."

However, Watson's new wife, Coral Phylis Branch, who he married in prison in May, is in the North Island.

Watson's family expects she and her four children will move south to be closer to him.

Mr Ryall said today that the family of Watson's victims should have had their views taken into consideration.

He also questioned why Watson would want to move to Christchurch -- further away from his new wife.

"My thought was that his closest family members are living in Rotorua now," Mr Ryall said.

While Gerald Hope, Olivia's father, did not want to comment on Watson's move today, he said his family had not been consulted.

The Smart family was not available for comment this morning.

In April, Mark Lundy, who was sentenced to life for killing his wife and daughter in Palmerston North in 2000, was moved from maximum security Auckland prison to a high-medium unit at Wanganui, without any consultation with the family of his victims -- a move Mr Ryall called "outrageous".

"If they are going to move prisoners around the country they need to consult with the victim's families," Mr Ryall said.

Watson's father, Chris, said his son was still in a high medium security category in Christchurch but he now had a "full social calendar".

For Watson's parents and his brother Tom and sister Sandy in Picton, going north had always been difficult and they rarely got to visit their son and brother in prison.

Chris Watson said Tom had visited his brother twice since he'd been in prison and Sandy once. The senior Watsons and Tom had already been to Christchurch and Sandy planned to go soon.

To get to Paremoremo Prison would take the family 10 days by the time they had visited Scott twice and returned home, Chris Watson said.

"Now we can just get in the car and go," he said.

Mrs Watson said she assumed Scott's wife Coral and family would move south.

"We haven't talked about it but we assume she will be coming down. It's not easy just to move the kids and household. They would have to pack and make arrangements," she said.

A petition was presented by Scott Watson's supporters to Parliament in June calling for a commission of inquiry into his case. Chris Watson said today this had been tabled and was awaiting consideration by a select committee.

Watson, 33, is not eligible for parole until 2016.

- NZPA