Graeme Burton

Graeme Burton is a New Zealander who murdered two people in two separate incidents fourteen years apart. The second murder occurred six months after he was released on parole in 2006. This led to increased public concern about the release of high risk offenders on parole and to internal reviews by the Probation Service and the New Zealand Parole Board of their decision-making and management processes.

Burton was adopted as a baby by an older couple. Burton was described as an artistic and polite child, who went off the rails after his adoptive father died when Burton was in his teens. This left his foster mother to raise him on her own. It seems she struggled to cope and was very critical of Burton as he was growing up. If he misbehaved, she would remind him he was adopted and threaten to give him back. As a result of put downs and constant criticism, Burton grew up feeling insecure and angry, with little sense of attachment to his adopted mother. He began using drugs at the age of 15.

The TVNZ documentary Beyond the Darklands documented Burton’s increasing abuse of drugs as a teenager and, in particular, highlighted his use of LSD, cannabis, alcohol and prescription pills. From the age of 17, he was using drugs on an almost daily basis. His girlfriend who was interviewed for the documentary said he used to break into chemist shops to get benzodiazepines and committed burglaries to get money for drugs. By the time he was 21, he had 91 convictions for property, fraud and other drug-related crimes.

Burton’s frustrations came to a head in 1992 after he was refused entry to a Wellington nightclub. He took his resentment and rage out on Paul Anderson, a lighting technician at the club, stabbing him to death in an alcohol and drug fuelled frenzy. He was under the influence of six different drugs at the time. A friend said he witnessed Burton taking 8 to 10 Halcion tablets (a benzodiazapine) and a couple of trips (LSD) in the hours before the murder and said he had been drinking "tequila slammers" all evening. This chemical cocktail turned out to be a recipe for disaster.

Burton was sentenced to life imprisonment and continued using drugs in prison. In June 1998, Burton and three other offenders escaped from Paremoremo Prison, sparking a manhunt involving more than 100 police. He was sentenced to three years' prison for the escape and associated crimes.

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