Relatives of a man killed by missing prisoner Phillip John Smith have gone into protection while police try to locate him, a family member has told Radio New Zealand.
Smith disappeared while on authorised temporary release from Spring Hill Prison in the Waikato and is still at large.
The 40-year-old was picked up from prison on Thursday morning by his sponsor and Corrections found out during a routine check two days later that he had been unaccounted for since Thursday afternoon.
Smith was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for stabbing to death a man in Wellington whose son he had been sexually abusing.
He had earlier tracked the family from the Wairarapa, where he was facing sex charges, to the Wellington suburb of Johnsonville where they were living in a supposedly safe house.
Phillip Smith still at large - Prison abscondee, 40 year-old Phillip John Smith, is still at large and Police are ... http://t.co/zfmNjtI570
— New Zealand Police (@nzpolice) November 9, 2014
The relative of the murdered man and family representative told Morning Report they were only told at 4pm yesterday that Smith was missing.
“We just want him caught and this should never have happened,” she said.
The woman said she may take up the offer depending on what happened today. She said the family was not told where they were going.
“I've spoken to one of my family who's been put in protection. They're extremely worried. This has upset their whole life yet again. Yet again they're in hiding, it's not right.”
Corrections' National Commissioner Jeremy Lightfoot said Smith had been on an approved temporary release, but his disappearance was a serious breach and the department would review the circumstances.
“We made contact as part of our routine monitoring ourselves on Saturday afternoon and that was the point at which we made contact with the sponsor,” Lightfoot said.
“We were told he had not been with the sponsor since Thursday afternoon.”
