A murderer who stabbed another woman at a bus stop has been released by the parole board just 10 months after he was last allowed out into the community.
The New South Wales Parole Authority on Thursday released Terrence John Leary on strict conditions, including electronic monitoring and residing in a secure facility supported by Corrective Services.
Fiona Walker, Vanessa Hoson’s sister, who was a teenager when Leary bludgeoned her to death with a hammer in her home in 1990 after she rejected him, warned in a presentation to the board that “this will happen again.”
When he was last paroled in 2012, after serving 22 years for Ms Hoson’s murder, it took Leary 10 months to attack another woman.
The 30-year-old Thai woman had just finished a babysitting shift in Sydney’s north on June 19, 2013, and was listening to music at a Hunters Hill bus stop.
In an “explosive and vicious” attack, Leary grabbed her by the neck, dragged her behind the bus stop, punched her in the face, pulled down her pants so hard her belt broke and stabbed her in the neck before a passerby intervened and called police.
The traumatized woman survived and Leary was sentenced to another 15 years for assault and attempted rape.
Ms Hoson’s family have campaigned tirelessly against his release for years and Ms Walker quoted the judge who last sentenced him in her submission, who stated that he “is a continuing danger to society” and “cannot be said to have any real prospects of rehabilitation”.
Vanessa Hoson (pictured) was beaten to death with a hammer after she rejected Leary, who then attacked another woman when he was given final parole.
Ms Hoson’s sister, Fiona Walker (pictured), opposed her release in a lengthy submission to the parole board, but it was granted.
In a news release issued Thursday, the State Parole Authority confirmed his release effective Sept. 18, saying that “supervised parole is in the interest of community safety.”
Authority chairman the Honourable Geoffrey Bellew, SC, said that if Leary served his full sentence he would return to the community without supervision.
‘The alternative is to keep the offender in custody and release him at some later time, either with a shorter period of parole supervision or at the end of his sentence without any period of supervised parole.’
‘The community is best served, in terms of its protection, by supervised release.’
A picture of Leary taken in court when he was sentenced for stabbing another woman in 2013
Ms Walker argued that Leary should be declared a repeat serious sex offender and kept under a continuing detention order.
The Authority confirmed that it had taken into account expert advice from the Serious Offender Review Council (SORC), which recommended that conditional release was appropriate.
“The offender has successfully completed programs to address his crimes, including a sex offender program,” it said.
In addition to the normal conditions of probation, he was also subject to other rules, including not having any contact with the victim or her family, not going to certain council areas and not participating in psychology sessions.