Wānaka stomping attacker released from prison three years early

The clinician wrote a letter to the board outlining the prisoner’s progress and how he had developed "a level of personal insight and self-awareness". Photo / 123rf

A man convicted of attempted murder after repeatedly stomping on his victim in a Wānaka shop has been released from prison with nearly three years of his sentence remaining.

Ahu Stanley Taylor (46) was jailed for 10 years, eight months following the attack on Kahu Vincent at Night‘nDay in May 2015.

Vincent was in an induced coma for 12 days with significant swelling and bleeding to the brain, followed by three weeks in the hospital’s critical care unit with traumatic brain injury and related complications.

Taylor and his co-offender Leon Rowles began their onslaught by knocking the victim to the floor.

For more than a minute and a half, both assailants stomped on his face and head as he lay motionless.

Taylor delivered 23 single-foot stomps to Vincent’s head and on three occasions used a shop bench so as to be able to use both feet at the same time.

The men inflicted 81 blows.

While Taylor had only two convictions to his name in New Zealand, the Parole Board at a hearing last month heard he had accrued 18 while living in Australia.

Some of those convictions were for violence, panel convener Mary More noted.

Taylor’s bid for release was stymied last year when he had a fight with another inmate and subsequently underwent more sessions with a psychologist.

The clinician wrote a letter to the board outlining the prisoner’s progress and how he had developed “a level of personal insight and self-awareness”.

It was recommended that Taylor focus on reintegration, but his applications to live in Otago Corrections Facility’s self-care unit were rejected.

The reasons were redacted in documents released to the Otago Daily Times.

However, the board was impressed by Taylor’s “robust release proposal”.

He told the board he wanted to surf while on parole, but More said electronic monitoring, to ensure he stayed offence-free, was more important.

Taylor will be released next week and among his parole conditions are:

• To live at an address approved by Probation.
• To submit to electronic monitoring and abide by a 10pm-6am curfew.
• Not to enter Otago.
• Not to communicate with co-offenders.
• Not to contact the victim.
• Not to possess alcohol or illicit drugs.
• To attend any treatment as directed by Probation.