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Offender Databases Michael Busch

Michael Patrick Busch

Alias

.

Offences

Murder of 14 year old Ian Silby in Martinborough in November 1989
Also the attempted murder of Noel Hayes

Victims

Ian Silby and Noel Hayes

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1958

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and 10 years for attempted murder
Was paroled June 2002
Recalled to prison December 2002
Due for next hearing November 2010

Background
Wairarapa Times-Age story here
From Wairarapa Times-Age story 19/06/2003
A man who spent 12 years in jail for the cold- blooded murder of a boy in Martinborough in 1989 and the attempted murder of another man is back inside, after six months of freedom. Michael Patrick Busch, 45, was paroled last year, having served about 12 years for the shotgun murder of Ian Silby, 14, and attempted murder of Noel Hayes. He is now in Manawatu Prison, having been recalled to jail for breaching his parole conditions. Busch, a vineyard worker, pleaded guilty to murdering Silby and trying to murder Hayes in a lunchtime attack on the two in Hayes’s Cologne Street home on November 24, 1989.

In the police summary of facts presented to Masterton District Court, there were allegations of a homosexual relationship between Busch and Silby and evidence of a falling out between the three. Feeling slighted over comments Silby had allegedly made about him, Busch had left work, armed himself with the shotgun and 18 cartridges and rode his motor scooter to Hayes’s house where Silby and Hayes were about to have lunch. He burst in the door and, after an angry outburst at Hayes, opened fire.

The first shot fired at point blank range had "miraculously" missed hitting anyone, including a nine-month-old baby sitting in a highchair. As Mr Hayes dived towards the hallway to escape, Busch fired, hitting him in the shoulder and rendering his arm useless. He pursued Mr Hayes as the wounded man sought to barricade himself in a bedroom and shot him again as his intended victim dived through a window to get away. Busch then went out of the house and on to the lawn where Mr Hayes was lying.

He pointed the gun at Mr Hayes but when Busch was distracted by a neighbour calling out Mr Hayes rolled under the house. This may have saved Mr Hayes’s life as it was known Busch was scared of spiders and this fear would stop him from going under the house. The gunman turned his attention to Silby who was standing on the verandah at the back of the house and chased him inside. Silby locked hmself in the toilet and Busch fired a shot through the door. He pushed his way into the toilet, finding the boy lying on the floor pleading for his life. Busch shot him in both legs, then again in the left shoulder, through his upper body and then in the stomach.

After the shooting, Busch, in his own words, "casually walked outside", past the crying baby in the highchair and drove away on his motor scooter. He hid from searching police but later surrendered. Sentenced to life imprisonment for Silby’s murder and 10 years for attempting to kill Mr Hayes, Busch clutched a small red bible as Justice Gallen jailed him after a High Court of Wellington appearance. The judge told Busch his actions had cost a life and considerably affected many others. It had been "fortuiotous" that the badly wounded Mr Hayes had not also died. Busch was released in June last year but was recalled in December. It is not known why he was returned to prison, other than it was for breaching a condition of his parole

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Corrections and Additional Information
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