Bernard Boylan's body was found in a car parked on Ngatimaru Rd, near Waitara, Taranaki, in 2004.
A woman who conned a pensioner of his money before bludgeoning him to death with a steam iron has told differing stories over the past 20 years about how the murder occurred.
Now, as Julianna Shontel Nuku inches toward being released from prison, she has admitted to not having been “completely honest”.
At her recent hearing before the Parole Board, Nuku, 68, declared she would “tell the truth” when concerns about her various accounts were raised.
But the effect her changing narratives had on her ability to be released was evident.
The board declined her parole and said Nuku needed to revise her reintegration plan so it accurately reflected the details of her offending.
The crimes in question occurred more than two decades ago, when Nuku, who has an extensive history of theft and deception, conned and murdered her older friend, Bernard Boylan, a retired Taranaki bricklayer.
The 79-year-old gave her cash, believing it was to help her pay off her debts.
But Nuku had an out-of-control gambling addiction and instead fed the money into pokie machines.
In 2004, Nuku, then 47, went on to beat the Inglewood man to death with a steam iron and then took his chequebook and wrote out cheques, having copied his signature.
She wrapped Boylan’s body in a sheet and left it in the boot of his car and parked it on Ngatimaru Rd, on the outskirts of Waitara, Taranaki.
He was found two days later, on April 27, 2004.
The following year, in August 2005, Nuku was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum period of imprisonment of 17 years.
At the hearing, she asserted she was not involved in Boylan’s murder and that hit men had killed him.
However, she was remorseful and took responsibility for what they had done, it was heard.
Justice Paul Heath did not accept that Nuku was remorseful and said any remorse was for the predicament in which she now found herself.
He said her history had all the hallmarks of a con artist.
Prior to the murder, she had 96 convictions for various kinds of dishonesty dating back to 1979.
Boylan was described at the sentencing as a friendly, vulnerable, and frail old man who had trusted Nuku.
She, in turn, exhibited a high degree of brutality, cruelty, depravity and callousness against him.
Boylan had lived alone since the death of his wife in the late 1990s and was last seen when he attended mass at Inglewood’s Sacred Heart Church.
At a parole hearing last year, Nuku told the board she accepted full responsibility for her offending but that she was not her “right self” at the time.
“I wasn’t in my right self, should I say. I am fully responsible for it but if you can understand, I just felt that another person inside me actually took over.”
When asked if she was making excuses for what occurred, Nuku said she played the “complete role”.
She said there was no excuse and that she had acted out of selfishness and greed.
At her most recent parole hearing, held on August 28 this year, the board highlighted how, over the years, Nuku had advanced various accounts of the circumstances of her offending.
“Although she went to trial, she subsequently admitted responsibility for her offending but provided differing accounts as to how it occurred.
“Recently, she claimed that the offending was an accident and there was no preplanning involved.
“She described how the victim entered her house uninvited while she was ironing and she reacted by hitting him a number of times with an iron which she was using at the time.”
The Parole Board’s decision, released to NZME, detailed that when the board raised the inconsistencies with Nuku, she said she would tell the truth and admitted to not being honest with her previous accounts.
Several subsequent lines were then redacted from the decision before it went on to say that it was apparent from their discussion that Nuku’s safety plan needed to be revised to accurately reflect the details of her offending.
“The board supports Ms Nuku completing work with a psychologist to further develop her safety plan, given that her offence chain was based on a different narrative.
“The present version of the plan has not been based on the disclosure to the psychologist of the detailed account we heard today, and it is important that it does.”
Parole was declined for Nuku, who has also not yet confirmed accommodation upon her release.
She will be seen by the board again in March next year.
The decision also outlined how Nuku had recently been transferred to a different prison, where there have been no issues with her conduct or compliance.
She resided in a self-care unit and was the shopper for her house, and has also been working in the sewing room and the prison library.
Nuku has completed various programmes while behind bars, including those for drug and alcohol treatment and problem gambling.
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 and is currently an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.