A man is warning his white supremacist grandson could kill someone and needs proper care for his schizophrenia if he is released from prison later this week.
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Frank Finch - who has been held in custody on remand for breaching court release conditions, unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle and theft - will be sentenced on Friday.
Rod Finch said his troubled grandson, who has drug and alcohol problems, wrote to him from prison after the 15 March mosque attacks in Christchurch supporting white supremacist beliefs.
"It contained a number of concerning issues, the most concerning for me was the fact he said he applauded what took place in Christchurch and he felt NZ was being invaded by undesirables.
"That to me demonstrated that his mental state of mind was not good, whether he had access to drugs in prison which he states is as easy to get as getting an ice-cream off the street."
He said his grandson told him he was now the Sergeant of Arms for the white supremacist gang, the Stormtroopers, and he has expressed a willingness to kill.
Mr Finch said his grandson has told him and at least one other person that he could kill.
"He is fed up with being hounded by the police and coming backwards and forwards to the courts and that prison is his home and the inmates are his friends. The only way that he can get peace when he is released is to take someone's life and then get a sentence from 20 to 25 years," he said.
"I've been pleading with numerous ministers for help to prevent this fatality that we as a family have been so worried about. When he is on drugs he is a loose cannon and will stop at nothing."
Mr Finch believed his grandson was radicalised recently, and that he did not hold views like this when he was younger.
He said his grandson was constantly in trouble when he was young and went from one form of state care to another all through his teen years.
He said Frank Finch needed to get proper care for his profound mental health issues and not be in prison.
Corrections described Finch as a very difficult offender to manage, with significant mental health concerns, and said he also misused alcohol and drugs while in the community.
It said that if Finch was sentenced to imprisonment on Friday he was likely to be released on the same day because of time spent in remand.
Corrections said it would be seeking an adjournment to keep the offender in prison while a safe plan for his release could be made.