Sex offender-killer makes statement, PM makes apology

Fugitive killer and child abuser Phillip Smith has claimed no-one aided his escape from New Zealand – an undertaking he rated as “moderately hard” – in a written statement to Radio New Zealand News.

Mr Smith departed NZ last Thursday while on a 72-hour release from Waikato’s Spring Hill Prison, where he was serving time for the 1995 murder of a man whose son he had molested.

He flew out of NZ from Auckland Airport using a passport he somehow obtained last year under his birth name, Phillip John Traynor, which he had never legally changed.

In his statement to RNZ, Mr Smith he had run criminal background checks on his legal name and was confident his ruse would work because that name was not linked to his criminal offending.

Police and other authorities have as yet been unable to explain why this is the case, and an inquiry will be held into this and related matters.

Mr Smith was able to fly first to Chile and then on to Brazil.

Mr Smith would not confirm to RNZ whether he was still in Brazil, but did say “New Zealand would have considerable difficulty in extraditing me back, even if my location did become compromised” and that “it is thus highly unlikely that I will be returned to NZ under the national law of my host country, and attempts to do so will involve lengthy legal process”.

NZ does not have a bilateral extradition treaty with Brazil.

Mr Smith said he decided to escape NZ last year after his last parole hearing, and was able to accumulate $10,200 in cash, which he declared at Customs when leaving the country on 6 November.

“I have bachelor of accountancy and a bachelor of business studies with a finance major,” Mr Smith told RNZ. “I have used these skills to make money in various ways. Some of that money was on hand to fund my escape.”

Several years ago he was caught running mail order business from prison.

The fugitive said there were a number of reasons he fled NZ, which he will outline in a pending media statement, but “in broad terms I left New Zealand to escape the vigilante justice system that operates there”.

Vigilante or otherwise, the wheels of that justice system continue to turn slowly, with Police Commissioner Mike Bush admitting that an international warrant for Smith’s arrest was only issued at lunchtime yesterday.

Mr Bush said police had to "go through a process" – including collating accurate information – in order to provide sufficient evidence for a judge to issue a warrant that would prevent Mr Smith from crossing national borders.

A United States-based NZ police liaison officer was travelling to Brazil to assist in the manhunt launched by local authorities, said Mr Bush, who also confirmed police were talking to the two people who picked up Mr Smith from Spring Hill Prison, as well as anyone he may have had contact with before escaping the country.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key has apologised for joking about Mr Smith with reporters on Monday while in Beijing for APEC.

At the time Mr Smith was believed to be in Chile and Mr Key had quipped that when he saw Chilean president Michelle Bachelet at the economic summit he would warn her there was a Kiwi in her country she shouldn’t invite for lunch.

“Look, obviously it was a very poorly placed attempt at humour. I regret that and I unreservedly apologise," said Mr Key, who added he was prepared to apologise in person to the family of Smith’s victims.

The Prime Minister said he made the joke in response to a question he’d “misinterpreted”.