Zak Grieve to leave jail early after NT Administrator steps in

ZAK Grieve, who was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years for his role in the contract killing of Ray Niceforo will be eligible for release in 2023

Zak Grieve will be released eight years earlier than expected

ZAK Grieve, who was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years for his role in the contract killing of Ray Niceforo will be eligible for release in 2023.

Northern Territory Administrator Vicki O’Halloran on Thursday wrote to Grieve’s legal team telling them she had granted the prerogative of mercy, reducing his non-parole period to 12 years.

Grieve was in 2013 found guilty of murdering Niceforo, although the trial judge Justice Dean Mildren found he was not at the scene of the crime when his two mates, Chris Malyschko and Darren “Spider” Halfpenny, bludgeoned Niceforo to death with a shifting spanner.

Grieve had recruited Halfpenny into the plot to kill Niceforo, who was Malyschko’s abusive stepfather, telling the jury in 2013 he chose Halfpenny because he was a “tough guy”.

The trial heard Grieve at the time was preoccupied with smoking cannabis and playing computer games, and went home to sleep on the fateful night after pulling out of the plot.

Grieve told the court: “I said to (Malyschko) I can’t go through with this I cannot help you.

“Chris was a little annoyed and he just said, ‘come on man’.”

The case has drawn criticism of the Northern Territory’s mandatory sentencing regimen for murder, which imposes a non-parole period of 20 years unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The NT News’ last week controversially chose Grieve to appear on its NT’s 120 Most Powerful list.

In its reasoning for a prisoner serving a life sentence to be included on The List, the paper wrote: “(Grieve is) hoping the Gunner Government will grant him an early release. Will he be the poster boy for the end of mandatory sentencing?”

THE NT News’ 120 MOST POWERFUL: Zak Grieve’s controversial inclusion

Grieve’s barrister, Felicity Gerry QC told The Australian the grant of mercy was a criticism of mandatory sentencing laws.

The decision was “huge in terms of its implications for the NT’s mandatory sentencing regimen and the injustices of mandatory sentencing is a huge deal across Australia,” Ms Gerry said.

Justice Mildren, in sentencing Grieve to the mandatory minimum in 2013, said he took “no pleasure” in imposing the sentence, and said the laws “inevitably bring about injustice”.

Grieve’s was covered afresh in a documentary series The Queen and Zak Grieve, which coincided with Grieve’s legal team petitioning Ms O’Halloran for mercy.

Grieve’s mother, Glenice Grieve, delivered the news to her son at Holtze Prison yesterday.

She told The Australian “When you come across a case like Zak’s, you can see right and wrong, it’s black and white, but the law did not allow the judge to make the right decision.”

Speaking from Katherine last year, Grieve’s brother Terry Grieve said the family was cautious about becoming too hopeful.

“You put so much (focus on) hope, but you brace for disappointment,” he said.