A MAN who once stabbed a woman four times in front of her child is back on the street.
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Benjamin John Bradshaw was released from Risdon Prison last month, after appearing before the parole board on June 10.
Mr Bradshaw – whose rap sheet includes a charges of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and armed robbery – was deemed worthy of parole after the board concluded he had “undertaken a significant amount of work whilst serving his custodial sentence to address these matters”.
Court records show Mr Bradshaw is a notoriously violent offender, with a taste for drugs and prior convictions for home invasions.
In 2007, Mr Bradshaw was jailed for trying to kill a mother in front of her seven-year-old daughter at Queenstown.
The woman suffered four kitchen knife stab wounds to her torso and required emergency surgery.
Police said at the time that broken glass was also used in the attack.
Like a scene from A Clockwork Orange, Mr Bradshaw also once feigned an injury to convince an elderly man to let him into his home.
After gaining entry, Mr Bradshaw produced a “spike” protruding from his hand and slashed the Newstead man with it, hospitalising him.
Mr Bradshaw was jailed for the attack in 2014.
In its report, the parole board said Mr Bradshaw was reprimanded for using methamphetamine in prison in February.
He has also had issues with anxiety, the document shows.
“The applicant's criminal history dates from when the applicant was aged 15 years,” the parole board document states.
“As indicated previously he has had one previous opportunity of parole which spectacularly failed whereby risk to the public was realised through the applicant's significant offending behaviour.
“Complicit in the applicant's offending has been a reliance on drugs and an anxiety condition. These matters together with his engagement with antisocial acquaintances, boredom and his own attitude have been recognised as risk factors to future offending behaviour.”
Mr Bradshaw is subject to strict parole conditions.
It is proposed that he reside with his parents and enlist in the Bridge Residential Program.
Mr Bradshaw’s parole period will continue until April 2019.
