Lisa Blakie killer Timothy Taylor denied parole for fourth time

Lisa Blakie was murdered in February 2000. Her killer has been denied parole again. Photo / Supplied

The man jailed for murdering Timaru woman Lisa Blakie has been denied parole for the fourth time.

Timothy Taylor has always maintained he's innocent of murdering Blakie, 20, in February 2000 as she hitchhiked from Christchurch to Greymouth.

Her body was found on Waitangi Day, weighted down by a boulder in the river near Arthur's Pass.

Darfield man Taylor was convicted of Blakie's murder and in 2003 sentenced to life in prison.

Taylor has already been denied parole three times - in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

At a Parole Board hearing at Christchurch Men's Prison on March 9, his bid for freedom was once again rejected.

The board noted that the last time they saw him in September 2018, Taylor had a number of misconducts but that he wanted to go into self-care and identifying appropriate release accommodation.

The board told him that he needed to reduce his security classification and show an extended period of good conduct.

In a newly released decision, it's revealed that Taylor did get down to low security classification but was increased again to low/medium after it was found he'd been using synthetic cannabis.

He was then removed from his work outside the wire and returned inside the wire at the prison.

"He now has work inside the wire and has generally behaved well in prison. Obviously, his increase in security classification after the effort of getting down to low was a matter of serious concern to us," the board writes.

Taylor, in the past, has completed the Drug Treatment Programme (DTP) and the Special Treatment Unit Rehabilitation Programme (STURP).

But the board noted that he continues to deny the murder and a rape in 1986. As a result, he has not completed any rehabilitation programmes for sex offenders.

"Mr Taylor continues to show a pattern of disobedience of prison rules. We had hoped that by now he had been able to settle and stay out of trouble in prison," the board says.

He stills wants to be released to an address he provided but he needs to "continue to try and behave appropriately in prison and avoid any misconducts or any inappropriate conduct so that we could be confident that a release to [withheld] and its tight set of rules and obligations will work".

"In the meantime, he remains an undue risk and cannot be released."

Taylor will come before the Parole Board again in March next year.

In 2015, Blakie's father Doug called for police to investigate a new suspect.

He no longer believes Taylor is responsible for his daughter's murder.

At his 2016 hearing, Taylor was described in a psychologist's report as being of high risk of general offending involving criminal attitudes, violence, substance abuse and gang relationships.

"[He] has a very significant way to go before he could be eligible for release," the decision stated.

It also detailed Taylor's past criminal history, "involving dishonesty as well as rape of a female in 1986 and revealed details of his involvement in bringing contraband goods into prison in October 2015, for which he incurred a misconduct and a 28-day forfeiture penalty".