Child and sex offender Phillip John Smith denied parole despite promise ‘I will succeed’

Tuesday, 11 November 2025

Killer and sex offender Phillip John Smith says his “horrendous” offending was driven by a desire to reignite what he saw as a relationship with the boy he spent years abusing.

Smith, whose name became known New Zealand-wide when he fled the country for Brazil in 2014, appeared before the Parole Board on Monday, when he talked extensively about his past offending, his claimed reasons for it, and claims of turning his life around.

“Given the opportunity [of prison release] I can only give you my word that I will succeed,” he said. The board denied his parole with the next hearing in 12 months’ time.

Smith received a life jail term in 1996 for murdering a man whose son he was molesting. The family had been in Wairarapa and fled to Wellington to escape Smith but he tracked them down. He has twice been convicted of committing fraud in prison.

In 2014 Smith was allowed temporary leave from prison before fleeing New Zealand using a passport issued in his birth name, Traynor. He travelled to Brazil, was caught and returned to New Zealand.

Smith told the Parole Board on Monday that his sexual offending was him seeking to have his “intimacy and sexual needs met in a very inappropriate and unlawful way, at a time when I didn't have the confidence to express my sexuality with peers of my own age”.

But when his victim had the courage to disclose the abuse, which had continued for three years, he said he felt abandoned, “due to distorted beliefs around that sexual abuse being a relationship”.

“This led to a real mental health crisis for me where my ability to think rationally was significantly compromised … It's not rational to have done what I did. It's not something that a rational mind would even contemplate.”

He confirmed to the board that, on the day he killed the man, he had stashed a gun at a nearby vacant property but took a knife to the house. He said he had gone to the house intending to dissuade the sexual abuse victim from continuing the allegations but there was some premeditation on his part.

“Because of the distortions I had at the time, I wanted that sexual abuse to continue.” But, in the moment the situation became out of his control, he said.

“I just completely blacked out, and I think I reverted to a childlike state and lashed out in a way that had such horrendous consequences for my victim.”

Smith told the board he now had supporters who he trusted and would, on the outside, help him from returning to crime. He said he wanted to get a job and pay tax.

The board encouraged him and the Department of Corrections to continue working on a plan to reintegrate into society but said that would take a long time.

In August 2023 The Post revealed that a website about Smith had been set up to give an “alternative view”.

It described him as loving and compassionate. It remains active.