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Raymond Ratima - Source: ONE News -
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One of New Zealand's worst killers has told ONE News he has the utmost compassion for his whanau.
Raymond Ratima killed seven people in 1992 and is due for a parole hearing at Rolleston Prison next week.
ONE News wanted to attend the hearing, prompting Ratima to write exclusively to reporter Simon Bradwell.
The letter is Ratima's first contact with the outside world for nearly 20 years after he was jailed for life for killing seven people, including his three children, in a night of carnage in Masterton in 1992.
A playground has replaced the house where Ratima bashed and stabbed his victims. When police arrived at the site 19 years ago, they found the bodies of his children piled on his wife's bed, with a Bible placed on top.
Ratima has never before spoken of his crime.
After ONE News wrote to Ratima asking to attend his parole board
hearing, Bradwell received a neat hand-written reply which was his
first public acknowledgement of his crimes since going to
jail.
"Simon, regretfully I took the lives of seven whanau members," he
told Bradwell.
"Members of my whanau continue today to suffer mentally, emotionally and physically for their loved ones. I have the utmost aroha, compassion, empathy and respect for them all," the letter said.
Former Winton police officer Malcolm Dunn dealt with a teenage Ratima, years before the murders.
"I was quite taken back... really amazed," Dunn said when the Ratima went on his killing spree.
The crime was so shocking that Ratima's hearing was delayed for three years for the sake of his victims' families.
"Twenty years later we have not had an appropriate context within which to share, korero or tangi together," he said.
But after opening up, Ratima then refused to let ONE News attend the hearing.
"I do not seek an advocate. I do not seek a balanced representation of my life. I want for my whanau (that of mine and my ex-partner's) to heal as best as they can in their lifetimes," he said.
Ratima's letter will not have any effect on his hearing. The Parole Board told ONE News that its prime criteria for assessing him for release is whether he presents any risk to the community.
"I do think he could settle back into society again," Dunn said.
However, his release is strongly opposed by his victims' families.
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