Karla's killer is up for parole

Paul Dally, the man who raped and murdered 13-year-old Karla Cardno 20 years ago, is due before the Parole Board next week seeking his release from prison.

In May 1989 Dally snatched the Hutt Valley schoolgirl off her bike as she rode back home from the local shops and dragged her to his house, repeatedly raping and torturing her for 22 hours while her family frantically searched for her.

Dally later put Karla - naked, bound and gagged - in his car boot and drove her to deserted Pencarrow Head, near the entrance to Wellington Harbour, where he buried her alive in a shallow grave.

After Dally was arrested six weeks later, he led police to Karla's grave, a place one detective described as, "One of the loneliest places in the world ... what a horrible place for a girl to end her life."

Dally was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990. When Karla's stepfather, Mark Middleton, heard Dally was due for parole in 1999, he threatened several times to kill him and was eventually charged with threatening to kill. Middleton was sentenced to nine months' jail, suspended for two years.

This week, Middleton told the Herald on Sunday he was still furious that justice authorities had ever released Dally, who had previous sexual assault convictions, so he was able to offend against Karla in the first place.

"We've had no apology from those who let Dally out in the first place, supposedly looking after him, and stuck him in my neighbourhood," Middleton said. "You ask about my anger? Nobody knows the length and depth of my anger. I don't think any lessons have been learned. People like Dally, they should never be let out."

Dally's case came before the Parole Board again two months ago but was adjourned until this coming week to allow time for a psychological review.

The board's convenor, Judge David Carruthers, described Dally's offending as "sadistic and inhumane".

The Parole Board is also expected to announce in the next few days whether David Wayne Tamihere, convicted of killing Swedish tourists Heidi Paakonen and Urban Hoglin 20 years ago, will be released. His hearing took place last week.

In 1989, the April disappearance of the Swedes, followed by Karla Cardno's kidnapping a month later, gripped the country and sparked fears that New Zealand's reputation as a safe country could no longer be maintained.

Both Dally and Tamihere - the brother of former Cabinet minister John Tamihere - have repeatedly been refused parole.

Garth McVicar, who founded the Sensible Sentencing Trust to support Mark Middleton and other victims of crime, says the scales of justice are now swinging against offenders, as the National-led Government implements many of the hard-line justice policies for which the Trust has been calling.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY