Kevin Naismith released on parole from Cooma jail after serving 25 years for murders of Danny Wasley and Mark Banks
He slipped out in the cover of darkness with the bodies of two men – including his best mate – before burning and burying them in Stockton sand dunes more than 25 years ago. Now, Kevin Naismith has made another silent dash.
Newcastle
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A quarter of a century after Kevin Naismith slipped out of his Charlestown driveway with the bodies of two men – including his best mate – wrapped in tarpaulins and en route to some remote sand dunes, the double killer has made another silent little early morning trip.
The convicted double murderer walked out of Cooma jail before 9am on Saturday – the first day he was eligible to be back into the community after the NSW State Parole Authority granted his conditional release earlier this month.
Naismith, now 55, was sentenced to a maximum 33 years in jail for the brutal murders of Danny Wasley and Mark Banks at Naismith’s Lake Macquarie home in 1999.
All three were part of the cannabis trade across Newcastle and Naismith had come to the conclusion the pair may have been ripped off over a specific deal.
Naismith had struck Wasley, his best friend since kindergarten, six times with a baseball bat and left the body in his garage before Banks arrived.
He shot Banks in the head and neck in his kitchen.
Naismith waited until before dawn the following morning and, with the help of another man, drove the bodies to a remote section of the vast Stockton sand dunes.
The bodies were burnt over two nights before being buried.
Naismith also burnt down his garage and wrote a fake letter threatening himself after Wasley’s concerned wife rang Naismith looking for the missing man.
Naismith fronted a parole hearing earlier this month, which heard he only had a single infraction during his 25 years behind bars for possessing an article of escape – a length of rope found in his cell shortly after he entered the prison system.
The authority’s chair, Justice James Wood, said Naismith had stable accommodation prepared for his release and could continue working at the business where he has been employed while incarcerated.
“He has accepted responsibility for his offending, and has expressed a great deal of remorse,” Justice Wood said.
“He has hoped to participate in restorative justice but the victims’ families indicated they were not ready to participate.”
Justice Wood acknowledged the concern the victims’ families would feel about Naismith’s impending release but said it was in the interest of community safety that he did not become institutionalised.
On Saturday – the first day Naismith was eligible to be released on parole – he walked out of Cooma jail before 9am.
As part of his parole conditions, Naismith will be required to abstain from drugs, not possess any dangerous weapons, not contact the victims’ families, and stay out of the Hunter and Central Coast areas.
His parole order expires at the end of his sentence on August 24, 2032 unless the order is revoked.
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