Prisoner loses appeal for contact visits with daughter

A maximum security prisoner has lost a second attempt to have contact visits with his daughter.

Arthur William Taylor was seeking to have physical contact visits with his daughter restored pending the results of judicial review application challenging a prison manager's decision to terminate visits.

Taylor had been allowed physical contact visits with his daughter at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo prior to October last year.

But following incidents at the prison the contact was reduced to visits with a perspex screen between them.

In a decision released today, the Supreme Court threw out his request and said any decision on whether he would regain access would depend on the results of the review.

Taylor lost a previous attempt to the Court of Appeal in August to have the visits restored.

In 2007 the High Court at Auckland was told that Taylor had spent 32 of the past 35 years in jail.

He had more than 130 convictions, and had escaped on six previous occasions, twice from prison and four times from lawful custody.

- NZPA