Hayden Poulter was convicted of three murders in Auckland, committed in two separate incidents a week apart in October 1996. The first victim was Natacha Hogan. A week later Ladda Nimphet and Herbert Richard Norris were killed, and a fourth person survived an attempt on her life. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on September 4, 1997, with concurrent terms for attempted murder and rape.
What came afterward was more than two decades in prison, a series of Parole Board hearings, a release in June 2018 under extensive conditions, a recall in August, and his death in Whanganui Prison in September of that year.
The offending was in two separate incidents, a week apart, in October 1996. In the first, Natacha Hogan was killed in central Auckland. A week later, in a second incident, Ladda Nimphet and Herbert Richard Norris were killed, and a fourth person survived an attempt on her life. She is not named.
Between the two incidents Poulter wrote to a newspaper to say that he would kill again, and the second incident followed. Why he wrote, and what the letter said beyond that, is not on record.
He was arrested in 1996 and remained in custody from then until his release in 2018.
Natacha Hogan was the victim of the first incident. Ladda Nimphet and Herbert Richard Norris were killed together in the second. Little else about the three, their ages or their families is on record. One of the conditions attached to Poulter's release in 2018 barred him from any contact with the victims or their families without their consent.
The woman who survived the second incident is known only by that role.
Poulter was sentenced on September 4, 1997, to life imprisonment for the three murders, with concurrent terms of 10 years for attempted murder and nine years for rape. His parole eligibility date was October 29, 2011.
The court that passed sentence and the exact wording of the charges are not on record.
The Board noted in 2016 that he had no mental illness at the time of the offending. Earlier, in 2011, it had recorded its worry that he was suppressing another personality which might reappear in some circumstances. Poulter had spoken of an alter ego he called "Hell," which he said urged him to kill women. In January 2013 he said he had abandoned it and that it could not return because it had never existed. He said he had created it to avoid dealing with various emotions.
From the late 1990s Poulter took part in treatment: significant one-to-one counseling between 1998 and 2002, a drug treatment program completed in 2011 and an adult sex offender treatment program completed in 2012. He also gained a university qualification in prison. In 2013 he said that he accepted full responsibility for his crimes.
By 2016 he had spent four years in an inner self-care unit. Over the following years he moved to an outer self-care unit, began release-to-work placements building structures for the prison, worked part-time driving a tractor outside the perimeter, and completed guided releases into the community.
Poulter's first hearing was in November 2011. The Board described the offending as of the worst kind imaginable, credited him with doing very well in prison, and said it was anxious that he was suppressing another personality. It told him that release must be regarded as some way off and set a further hearing for a year later. In January 2013 he had not applied for early release and was due to appear before the Board again in a year.
The Board saw him again on August 12, 2015, declined parole, and endorsed continued gradual reintegration.
On June 15, 2016, a panel convened by Hon. J W Gendall QC declined parole again. The panel found that he remained an undue risk to community safety until he could show, across various settings, that the skills he had learned would hold. His reintegration plan had not been tested outside prison. A psychologist assessed his risk as moderate to low, and the Board noted that this was not the same as no risk. Community Probation opposed release. His lawyer argued that he had done all he could. The panel set his next hearing for the week of May 15, 2017.
The 2017 hearing took place on May 5 by audio-visual link, with a panel convened by Hon. M A Frater. Poulter did not seek parole. He asked for a transfer to the outer self-care unit, for release to work and for a stand-down of three to six months. He had completed five guided release outings without incident and had begun sessions with a psychologist on relationships. The Board declined parole and said that six months of release to work was the minimum before his risk could realistically be assessed. It set the next hearing for May 2018 and asked for an updated psychological assessment.
The panel that met on May 17, 2018 was convened by Judge E Paul, with Dr. J Skipworth and Mr. B McMurray, and heard Poulter by audio-visual link from Whanganui Prison. A psychologist's addendum report, dated April 10, 2018, assessed him as a moderate risk of general offending, and judged his proposed release address, with family in a rural area where work was available, appropriate.
By then he had spent about three years in release-to-work placements and had completed 20 guided releases, all reported as positive. One incident in the prison garden had led to him being removed from it for a month; he accepted that, and the unit manager said he handled it maturely. The Board concluded that he had sufficiently reduced his risk and could be released on extensive conditions. The decision was announced on May 28, 2018.
The conditions included:
a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven nights a week, and GPS electronic monitoring;
residence at an approved address, with no move without a probation officer's written approval;
a ban on entering the Auckland region, and the area north of a line from Whakatu, Huntly and Paeroa to Whangamata, without approval;
no contact with the victims or their families;
restrictions on certain commercial services, on advertising and on contact with media organizations, each lifted only with permission;
disclosure of any new intimate relationship at the earliest opportunity;
a lifelong ban on alcohol and non-prescribed drugs, while the other special conditions were to run for five years;
psychological and drug and alcohol assessments and any recommended treatment;
a face-to-face monitoring hearing five months after release, set for November 2018.
He was released from Whanganui Prison in June 2018. Where he would live was not announced beyond an address with family in a rural area. The standard conditions ran for life and the 15 special conditions for five years.
Poulter was recalled to prison in August 2018 for breaching his parole. He was found dead in Whanganui Prison in September 2018, less than a month later. The nature of the breach and the cause of death are not on record.
October 1996: Natacha Hogan is killed in Auckland.
A week later: Ladda Nimphet and Herbert Richard Norris are killed in Auckland, and another person survives an attempt on her life.
1996: Poulter is arrested.
September 4, 1997: life sentences for three murders, with concurrent terms for attempted murder and rape.
1998 to 2002: one-to-one counseling in prison.
October 29, 2011: parole eligibility date.
November 2011: first Parole Board hearing; release described as some way off.
2012: adult sex offender treatment program completed.
January 2013: says his alter ego has been abandoned.
August 12, 2015: parole declined.
June 15, 2016: parole declined.
May 5, 2017: parole declined; release to work supported.
May 17, 2018: hearing; parole granted, announced May 28.
June 2018: released on parole.
August 2018: recalled for breaching parole.
September 2018: dies in Whanganui Prison.