Convicted killer lifting lid on life behind bars

CONVICTED Katherine murderer Zak Grieve, controversially jailed for at least 20 years, has detailed his life behind bars in the first instalment of a six-part documentary series released today

Convicted murderer Zak Grieve has detailed his life behind bars in a new documentary, The Queen & Zak Grieve.

CONVICTED Katherine murderer Zak Grieve, controversially jailed for at least 20 years, has detailed his life behind bars in the first instalment of a six-part documentary series released today.

The Queen & Zak Grieve, written and presented by The Australian crime reporter Dan Box, reveals compelling new details about Grieve’s crime, trial, and life in jail.

Grieve, his friend Chris Malyschko and a third man, Darren Halfpenny were all handed mandatory life sentences for the 2011 murder of Malyschko’s abusive stepdad, Ray Niceforo.

The murder was a contract killing taken out at the behest of Malyschko’s mother, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was released on parole in May last year.

Justice Dean Mildren found Grieve, 19 at the time of the killing, pulled out of the trio’s planned murder and was at home when Malyschko and Halfpenny bludgeoned Niceforo to death with a spanner.

Justice Mildren said “it does not really matter in one sense” that Grieve pulled out of the murder, because under Territory law, Grieve was guilty because he did not try to stop the crime he had planned to take part in.

Sentencing Grieve to a mandatory minimum 20-year non-parole period, Justice Mildren used his last trial as a full-time judge to criticise the Territory’s mandatory sentencing laws. “Legislation of this kind is unprincipled and morally insensible,” he said.

“I take no pleasure in this outcome. It is the fault of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions which inevitably bring about injustice.”

Justice Mildren recommended the Administrator exercise the rarely-used prerogative of mercy to release Grieve after 12 years served.

In a phone conversation with family shown as part of the documentary, Grieve says he at first thought he was being sentenced to 12 years. “At the time I was like, ‘Did he just sentence me to 12 years?’ and me mate Chris, who’s sat next to me, said, ‘Zak, you just got 20 years’,” he said.

Corrections boss Mark Payne refused interview requests with Grieve. Grieve says he has been made to do the violent offenders program in jail, despite never having physically committed a violent crime.

“I remember looking at the head psychologist and thinking ‘Wait, if I didn’t actually hurt anyone and I wasn’t violent in any such nature, why do I have to do it?’ He’s just gone ‘Because your case has high notoriety’. Like, thanks.”

The Queen & Zak Grieve, a six-part series, begins today, theaustralian.com.au