Oakes' victim wanted out, says wife

As convicted murderer Gay Oakes tasted freedom yesterday, the "real wife" of victim Doug Gardner revealed that he sought reconciliation with her just days before his death.

Mr Gardner's widow, Lorraine, said her estranged husband had phoned two days before his disappearance.

"He told me he wanted to get back with me, and I said, 'No'.

"He said he was going over to tell Gay, then two days later ... That's when she killed him."

Oakes, aged 41, was driven out the front gate of Christchurch Women's Prison just after 7am yesterday.

Corrections Department spokesman Chris King said Oakes was driven off the grounds in a departmental vehicle.

Her lawyer, Ruth Buddicom, said Oakes would not comment about her release or her plans.

In January 1993, Oakes laced Mr Gardner's coffee with poison, suffocated him, then buried him in their Sydenham backyard.

His body was found 14 months later.

Oakes was allegedly in an abusive de facto relationship with Mr Gardner at the time of his death, but he had remained married to Mrs Gardner.

When asked whether he had been a violent husband, Mrs Gardner said: "I can't say."

They married at a registry office in 1980.

"A lot of people don't know he was married. He had a wife and daughters," she said.

Mr Gardner had two children with her, and four children with Oakes.

Mrs Gardner said she wanted Oakes to move ahead.

"I would have liked her to do more years, but obviously the Parole Board thought differently.

"All I want for her now is to get on with her life."

The board last week ruled that Oakes should be freed two years short of the then mandatory 10-year minimum time for murder. It granted her early release in the interests of justice, and said she posed no threat to public safety.

A condition of her release is that she not speak publicly about her stormy relationship with Mr Gardner, and that she avoid contact with his family.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said anonymous threats had been made to Oakes and her children. Mrs Gardner said her family were not involved in the threats.

She said Oakes had written from prison asking if they could be friends. Mrs Gardner did not write back.

The Gardners had decided to part in 1982.

"It was mutual. He went to Aussie and I brought up the girls."

Mrs Gardner remembered special moments with her husband. Once he brought a piglet home for his daughters.

"He had his moments, like any man. We had our good times; we had our bad times."

- NZPA