Source: Radio New Zealand
Supplied
Nearly three decades after Fiona Maulolo was killed by her partner Leslie Parr, he killed again, this time his mother. Maulolo’s sister spoke with National Crime Correspondent Sam Sherwood about the family’s loss, their anger, and the many questions they have.
Tina Maulolo was at home when she heard a knock at the door.
It was June 2024, 27 years after her sister, Fiona Maulolo, was brutally killed by her partner Leslie Parr. A jury had found him not guilty by reason of insanity and a judge ordered he be detained in a special secure unit and not freed without the health minister’s authority.
When Tina got to the front door she saw two police officers.
The officers had some chilling news. Parr had killed again, this time his mother. The officers didn’t go into further details, but warned she may be contacted by the media.
She checked online but couldn’t see anything, and had no way of finding out more information.
It wasn’t until this week, almost two years on, when a suppression order was lifted that Tina learned the full details for the first time.
She told RNZ she’s “pissed off” with the system, has many questions, and wants an independent inquiry into the mental health system.
“It sounds like history repeated itself … Why was he let out?”
The first killing
Parr met Fiona Maulolo in 1996. The pair soon moved into a property in the Hutt Valley.
Tina says she did not know Parr well. She described her sister as a loving mother to her two daughters.
Soon after meeting Maulolo, Parr, who had earlier been made a patient under the Mental Health Act stopped taking his antipsychotic medication regularly and had an “episode” which led to him being admitted to Porirua Hospital.
Parr was described as a man who was “depressed and delusional”, thinking that his father was Satan. He was predicting the end of the world in the year 2000, and said he heard voices telling him to kill himself.
When his medication was reintroduced he began to deny psychotic symptoms.
On the day he was due to be discharged from hospital he seriously assaulted a police officer who was visiting the same ward.
Parr told a psychiatrist he didn’t believe he was to blame “because the constable had looked at him”.
He was then made a compulsory inpatient for six months under the Mental Health Act but nine days later on March 28 1996 was discharged by psychiatrist Linda Astor who hadn’t even seen him. Astor later fled the country and was unmasked as a bogus psychiatrist
Parr was not seen again by mental health services until 15 April 1997 after he was found semi-conscious in a carport at Maulolo’s property.
Three days later, Maulolo was found dead.
A jury found Parr not guilty by reason of insanity. A judge ordered he be detained in a special secure unit and not freed without the health minister’s authority.
A coroner later said Parr’s treatment had been seriously deficient.
Tina says her sister’s death was a “total failure of the system”.
Supplied
She says the family had concerns about the public’s safety should he ever be released.
“We had doubts. But we left that up to the authority to do what they were supposed to do with him. We were told they were supposed to inform us along the way, if he gets released and what will happen to him, but we never had any contact, nothing.”
The release
Tina says she contacted the hospital where Parr was detained more than 10 years after the killing. She says she was told he had been released to work with his uncle.
“To me at the time I thought, ‘well, heck…’ we were told that he should be in there for basically the rest of his life, and yet, they released him out to family… he can live happily with his family. And my nieces are going through life without their mother.”
To be released into the community after being designated a special patient, requires the sign off of the minister of health, the attorney general and the director of mental health. Parr was released back into the community in 2012. In 2021, his status was changed to being a patient under the Mental Health Act.
At the time of his second killing, he was subject to a Compulsory Treatment Order.
In the weeks leading up to his mother’s death, Parr’s mental health was “rapidly declining,” Justice Karen Grau said.
In May 2024, following an altercation between Parr and a relative he was admitted to a mental health facility.
He was released after about a week on 30 May. In the following days he became preoccupied with the loss of his car keys and was having difficulties with relationship he was in.
He was also using cannabis.
Then on 4 June 2024 he killed his mother, Heather Condon.
Following Condon’s death, two police officers visited Tina and told her Parr had killed his mother.
“They didn’t go into details or anything like that,” she says.
“I had no one to reach out to for more information.”
She says her initial reaction was: “oh my gosh, not again. Why was he let out?”.
‘History repeated itself’
Justice Karen Grau ruled that Parr was legally insane at the time he caused his mother’s death. He was detained in a hospital as a special patient under the Mental Health Act.
Due to suppression orders that prevented publication of both Parr and his mother’s names, Tina was unaware of the extent of what happened for almost two years.
RNZ earlier revealed the case, which had been shrouded in secrecy last year. On Monday, the suppression orders lapsed after the Supreme Court did not grant leave to appeal.
Over the weekend, Tina received a call from a detective who investigated her sister’s killing.
He told her that the suppression orders would be lapsing on Monday.
The detective then sent her a link to an RNZ article about the case which detailed the background.
Then, after suppression lapsed on Monday, she read more.
She says she’s “pissed off with the system”.
“History repeated itself,” she says.
“It’s just so bad … I feel like he killed two people and got away with murder, literally. They claim he’s mental, obviously they thought he was fine to release him out to the public, and then look at what happened.”
Tina says she holds the mental health system responsible for “innocent lives being lost due to their incompetence and neglect.”
“If the health system did the proper thing, and kept him inside then that would never happen to [Condon],” she says.
“How come they didn’t pick up on any signs if they know what they’re supposed to be looking for? They release him out, thinking that he’s all good … how come they can’t pick up different signs of someone that’s not well?”
Leslie Parr. Supplied
Tina says Fiona’s two daughters are also “angry” with what has happened.
“They just feel like he’s getting away with no accountability… no one is taking accountability for it.”
An external review of the care Parr received is being finalised.
Tina wants authorities to take action and adopt all recommendations the review finds.
“They can’t just say, ‘yeah, okay, we’re gonna do it’… they really need to show that they will do it, or someone needs to overlook it, that they are going to implement whatever those things are.”
Chief victims advisor Ruth Money said on Monday the case was “heartbreaking and preventable”.
When RNZ first revealed the case she called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into forensic mental health facilities.
On Monday she said she stood by those calls.
Tina doesn’t believe Parr should have ever been released.
“He shouldn’t be out again. But I wish he would be in prison, not in mental health.”
She says an apology from authorities would do little for the family.
“Nothing will change or bring Fiona back. Any apology at this stage we consider will achieve nothing.
“However, actions do speak louder than words. We wholeheartedly agree with chief victims advisor Ruth Money, that mandated recommendations to come out of this inquiry hopefully will provide greater safety for patients and communities and hopefully to restore trust in the mental health system.”
Tina becomes emotional when asked to describe the impact that Parr’s killings have had on her family.
“She’s missing out on her grandchildren…,” she begins before pausing.
“Her grandchildren are never going to meet their grandmother.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
