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By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ

• Dean Richard Mulligan, convicted of murdering Marice McGregor, maintains his innocence after 15 years in custody.
• Mulligan, eligible for parole, did not seek it and has filed with the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
• The Parole Board questioned his history of dishonesty; Mulligan claims he was not lying about his innocence.

After 15 years in custody, a man convicted of bludgeoning a woman to death in a remote rural ravine continues to maintain his innocence.

Dean Richard Mulligan was sentenced to life in jail, with a minimum term of 15 years, after being found guilty of murdering Marice “Katrina” McGregor.

He’s now eligible for release and this week went before the Parole Board for the first time on Monday – 15 years to the day since McGregor’s body was found.

He didn’t seek parole, but was firm in his continued denials of the killing, saying he’s filed a case with the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The board questioned Mulligan about his history of not telling the truth, something the former computer technician, from Feilding in Manawatū, said was previously the result of a lack of self-esteem.

However, he said he was not lying when he said he was innocent of McGregor’s murder.

For about an hour, the Parole Board probed Mulligan at a hearing, which RNZ attended.

Online search for ‘hard hit to head’

When sentencing Mulligan in 2011, Justice Denis Clifford didn’t mince his words.

The judge said he was a pathological liar and a fantasist, who in saying he wasn’t guilty had shown no remorse.

During his trial in Whanganui, the court heard Mulligan met McGregor online and during the pair’s two-year relationship had drained her bank account of about $30,000.

He believed he would get the rest of her money and her house if she died.

After McGregor threatened to tell Mulligan’s wife about their relationship, he killed her in a remote spot off State Highway 4, about 50km north of Whanganui on April 19, 2010.

Mulligan struck her three blows with an iron bar. Her body wasn’t found for weeks.

At his trial, Mulligan said he was innocent and the real killer had threatened him into making a false confession, a confession he later recanted.

Mulligan had searched online for “hard hit to back of head” hours before McGregor was killed, but he told police that was after he’d knocked his own head – although his version of events changed.

This week he told the board McGregor had access to his computer at the time, so could have made the search.

Mulligan denies the pair were in a relationship.

In 2013, the Court of Appeal rejected Mulligan’s bid for a retrial.

‘I still deny it’

The Parole Board wasted no time in asking the question: does Mulligan maintain his innocence?

“I still deny doing the murder,” he said.

Board member Susanna Every-Palmer asked Mulligan what involvement he had in the killing.

Mulligan said the day McGregor died, she asked him over to her place to chop firewood, but he was reluctant as he felt she was growing dependent on him and he said he didn’t feel comfortable there.

The pair travelled to the remote spot where McGregor died. There, she talked to a man aged in his 20s.

“That’s when I saw what happened,” Mulligan said, referring to the man striking McGregor with a weapon.

The man then climbed up the bank and told Mulligan not to tell anyone, otherwise there would be trouble.

Another man was also there too, he said.

Mulligan said as McGregor wasn’t responsive, he knew she was dead, so there was no need to seek help for her and the threats against him kept him silent.

During his appeal in 2013, Mulligan said a man called Phil Morrison killed McGregor and another man, Max Twedale, sexually abused Mulligan to force him into a relationship with McGregor.

Police couldn’t find anyone called Max Twedale and a Phil Morrison they spoke to had no involvement.

This week, Mulligan could remember Max Twedale’s name, but said the other man was “Richard something”.

Mulligan said he filed a case with the Criminal Cases Review Commission about a year ago and had twice spoken to staff there over the phone.

He acknowledged his continued denials wouldn’t be what McGregor’s family wanted to hear.

A history of lying

Every-Palmer said Mulligan’s family and even his church pastor had called him an “habitual liar”.

“A lot of things I lied about is because I did not want people to know what was going on within myself,” Mulligan said.

“I thought it was my problem, not other people’s problems.”

Mulligan was questioned about other acts of dishonesty, including in the 2000s sending his wife a threatening letter he pretended was from someone else.

“I can’t remember, to be honest,” he said when asked what it said.

In his early years in prison, Mulligan was in trouble for making false statements and fabrications, including trying to extort money from his family, saying he would be hurt if they didn’t pay.

He said he was influenced by others.

“I was trying to fit in. I suppose that’s one reason I keep to myself now, because I don’t want to be in that kind of environment.”

Every-Palmer said Mulligan’s explanations sounded like he was trying to shift blame to others.

Mulligan said he used to have low self-esteem, but now had the confidence to report bad behaviour to prison staff, as he had done recently.

Board member Dr Julia Ioane asked Mulligan what it was like to have people who cared about him describing him as a liar.

“I never used to mind it, but now I really hate it,” he said.

“Quite often, I felt left out on a limb for several reasons. Sometimes I lied to try to get into a group. Yes, it works sometimes, but mostly I don’t think it has really worked.”

He worked on prison grounds, mowing lawns, and said he mainly kept to himself in his unit.

A prison officer said he was doing well and, through his work, held positions of responsibility.

Mulligan will next go before the Parole Board in a year. Every-Palmer said board members would like to see him receive psychological treatment.

– RNZ