Peter Richard Holmes was sentenced for murder in the High Court at Dunedin in 2012. Photo / ODT
Jamie Ellis was lured away from a party and then beaten to death with a wheel brace after three men falsely believed he’d abused a woman.
One of those men, Peter Holmes, has spent the past 14 years in prison for murder, but has now been released after convincing the New Zealand Parole Board he is no longer a risk to the community.
Holmes will be subject to strict release conditions for the rest of his life and can be recalled to prison immediately if he violates any of those.
According to a ruling released by the board today, Holmes has changed his ways, with prison staff describing him as someone who genuinely cares for others.
He has been working outside the wire, has done five guided releases, including spending the night outside prison and was overall assessed as being at low risk of having problems with reintegrating back into the community.
A support person who attended his parole hearing earlier this month also spoke of the “massive change” they had seen in him since being imprisoned.
“Given the significant work Mr Holmes has completed, the changes that he has made, his sustained good conduct, coupled with the strong support he has in the community, we are satisfied his risk may be safely managed in the community, subject to the relatively strict conditions that are proposed,” the board said.
At his last hearing in September, Holmes appeared drastically different to the smirking man with a shaven head who appeared in court for sentencing. These days he wears glasses, is softly spoken and asked to open the hearing with a karakia.
He told the board that he had been full of “righteous anger” when he’d killed Ellis, and believed at the time what he was doing was justified.
“It was something that I was doing the wrong thing for the right reason. It felt as if I was entitled to punish the person. I know I had no right to do what I did,” he told the board in September.
“I planned to confront him and assault him, and that was as far as I intended it to go. The use of the weapon was what took it too far.”
Holmes, who has more than 100 convictions, mostly for dishonesty, told the board his offending had been driven by a desire to please people and was exacerbated by substance abuse.
His most serious crime was the killing of 23-year-old Ellis in 2011.
During a party in Oamaru a female friend of Holmes falsely claimed that Ellis had abused her, though there was no evidence this had occurred.
Holmes, together with father and son duo Dean and Mark Carruthers, then enticed Ellis to leave the party and go for a drive with them.
They went roughly an hour south to Warrington, north of Dunedin.
Then, without any warning or provocation, both Mark and Dean Carruthers and Holmes began kicking and punching Ellis and smashing beer bottles over his head.
While the father and son stopped at some point during the beating, Holmes continued, using a wheel brace to strike Ellis to death. His body was then dumped in the bay and found on the sand the following morning with 62 external wounds.
The Carruthers were initially charged with murder, but 18-year-old Mark later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter and received a two-year jail sentence.
Dean pleaded guilty to reduced charges of being an accessory after the fact of assault and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He received seven months of home detention.
Holmes was recognised as the lead attacker and pleaded guilty to a charge of murder. He was sentenced in 2012 by Justice Ronald Young in the High Court at Dunedin to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years and six months.
Holmes was released earlier this week to an undisclosed location, but is subject to a raft of conditions for the rest of his life.
He has an 8am to 8pm curfew, except in emergency situations, and will be subject to electronic monitoring.
Holmes is also not to consume alcohol, drugs or psychoactive substances and must attend any treatment or counselling directed by his Probation Officer.
He’s also not to associate with anyone from the white supremacist gang White Power Creed, nor anyone from Ellis’ family or his co-offenders.
Finally, he must disclose any intimate relationships he may enter into.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū, covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.