The country's longest-serving prisoner is writing a book about his 30 years behind bars.
Since his release this year, Dean Wickliffe has been working on a Tauranga-based fishing boat.
He has served 30 of the past 33 years in prison. He was sentenced in May 1972 to life imprisonment for the murder
of Wellington jeweller Paul Miet.
The Court of Appeal quashed the murder conviction 15 years later and Wickliffe was instead found guilty of manslaughter, although the life sentence remained.
In 1976 he briefly escaped from prison. He was released in 1987, but breached parole and stowed away on a ship to Australia.
After a botched bid to hold up a video store at gunpoint for $1000, Wickliffe was returned to high-security Paremoremo prison to serve a seven-year sentence and the balance of his life sentence.
He sparked a huge hunt in 1991 after a second escape and spent five weeks on the run.
Wickliffe was released on parole again in 1995 but was arrested in December 1996 on a charge of murdering Bay of Plenty man Richard Bluett and in October 1997 was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in 1998 and after a retrial Wickliffe was acquitted in February 1999.
But he remained in jail after being found guilty of drink-driving and cannabis charges.
A family friend, Doug Dinsdale, said yesterday that Wickliffe was "getting on all right."
"I think anybody enjoys their freedom after incarceration that long."
He said Wickliffe would not talk publicly about his time in prison but was writing a book on a home computer.
He said Wickliffe had a lot of support from his family.
- NZPA
