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Phil Doyle / Stuff
William Dwane Bell photographed in 2002 at his trial for the murder of William Absolum, Wayne Johnson and Mary Hobson.
Triple murderer William Dwane Bell has gone to court to challenge the decision to classify him as a maximum security prisoner.
Bell murdered William Absolum, Wayne Johnson and Mary Hobson and attempted to murder Susan Couch at the Mt Wellington Panmure Returns and Services Association in 2001.
He is serving a life sentence with the longest minimum period without parole in New Zealand, 30 years, in the Auckland prison in Paremoremo.
Bell appeared in Auckland High Court on Wednesday to challenge the Department of Corrections decisions on his security rating.
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The judicial review is scheduled for two days before Judge Mark Woolford Bell who is representing himself and has not hired an attorney.
PHIL DOYLE / Things
WIlliam Bell pictured at the trial in 2002.
He began the process by apologizing for his “heinous crime.”
He is “not proud” of what he did, the court heard.
“No amount of words can replace the loss, pain and suffering that I have caused to the loved ones of the victims. I’m really sorry for what I’ve done. “
The court heard in August 2019 that Bell was removed from his role in the prison’s new state-of-the-art kitchen, where he had been working to obtain a rating from the NCEA.
He said a fellow inmate had called Crimestoppers, claiming that Bell had planned to take a female staff worker hostage to escape.
Later, Bell was reclassified from low-medium risk to maximum security prisoner.
He said he had been given several demerit points that were “inaccurate and unsubstantiated.”
He said Corrections had previously described him as “well-behaved” and that he was not considered a violent prisoner.
Things
Phillip Smith’s number was inside Bell’s notebook.
He was carrying a notebook, which Corrections used as evidence that he was planning an escape, the court heard.
However, he had simply written the truck license plates inside so that he could identify the delivery trucks while working in the kitchen, he said.
The court also heard that the name and bank account number of high-profile prisoner Phillip John Smith were on the notebook.
Bell said that was because he owed Smith money. The corrections had gone “extreme” as Smith had escaped earlier, he said.
He had since been reclassified again as a low-medium risk prisoner, he said.
The hearing continues.
