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Archived Press Releases 2010 22nd October 2010

FAMILY FEAR ANOTHER BRUTAL DEATH AS INSANITY KILLER ABOUT TO WALK BACK INTO COMMUNITY

(22nd October 2010)

A paranoid schizophrenic who beat a man to death with a garden spade before dousing him in petrol and setting him alight has been granted unsupervised leave less than two years after being committed to one of New Zealand's most secure forensic psychiatric clinics.

Matthew Ahlquist ambushed Colin Moyle at his Auckland home in 2007. Ahlquist, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, threw boiling water in his victim's face before beating and burning him.

Despite ongoing mental health issues prior to the violent killing and then being committed to Auckland's high security Mason Forensic Psychiatric Clinic in December 2008, Ahlquist was this week granted unescorted leave by the Ministry of Health.

Colin Moyle's family now fear that another brutal killing could happen and they want the decision to allow Ahlquist unsupervised leave reviewed.

"For 10 years before my brother's brutal death, the Auckland District Health Board were unable to treat Ahlquist's illness, in fact it got worse. Are we now supposed to believe that two years in a clinic has magically cured him and he poses no risk to the community he is allowed to wander freely in?" said Colin's brother, Graeme Moyle.

Ahlquist is now in the care of the Waitemata District Health Board and Mr Moyle said they and the Ministry of Health had a duty to keep the community safe from those whose illnesses made them a danger to others.

"Tipping mentally ill and dangerous people onto the streets to walk among us may save the DHB money and create another empty bed, but which family in the future will get a visit from police to tell them their loved one has been brutally attacked and killed? The right for the public to be protected must outweigh the rights of a dangerously insane killer to walk free."

"Placing these seriously ill people into the community is another failed liberal experiment which puts the patients’ safety and the safety of the general public in jeopardy," Mr Moyle said.

Regards,

Graeme Moyle
Phone 07 8275121
Mobile 0274 941414