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Police arrived at his home in Dunedin, where he has been living on probation, late this morning and arrested him.
He faces several serious drug charges, some of which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, he told the Otago Daily Times prior to your arrest.
He said all he knew was that the allegations originated between February 1 and June 3, while he was living in Wellington.
Taylor said the filing of the charges was completely unexpected. No search warrants had been executed on his property and he said that no illicit substance had been found on him.
“I was stunned. I’ve been through some bullshit in the past, but this … These are bloody and serious charges.”
Taylor insisted he was innocent of the allegations and said he would plead not guilty when he appeared in court.
He was granted parole in January last year after being denied 19 times previously.
Taylor was serving 17½ years on charges of explosives, firearms, kidnapping and conspiracy to supply methamphetamine, among other crimes. The sentence was not to end until 2022.
He was initially paroled to Dunedin and then moved to Wellington at the end of the year, but was called to prison in June after being charged with possession of methamphetamine and violating the conditions of release.
Those matters were settled for trial with only one judge in the capital in February and Taylor was confident the charges would be dropped.
More urgent was a revocation hearing with the Parole Board in January that would decide whether or not he would continue to serve the remainder of his 17-year term.
The sentence ends in 2022.
A police spokeswoman said she could not comment on Taylor’s arrest. However, police confirmed that they assisted with a parole removal order in Dunedin this morning.
The Department of Corrections has been contacted for comment.
Almost 40 years of Taylor’s life has been spent in custody due to his more than 150 convictions for crimes including bank robbery, robbery, fraud and drugs. He is in his early 60s.
In recent years, Taylor has become better known as the “jail attorney” after a series of successful court cases.
These included the 2017 indictment and trial of Roberto Conchie Harris – secret “Witness C” – for perjury in the 1990 double murder trial of David Tamihere.
He was also instrumental in the courts which ruled that denying New Zealand prisoners the right to vote was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights and questioned the legality of the prison smoking ban.
