Convicted murderer and arsonist denied parole
Convicted murderer and arsonist Tonia Bennett, jailed for killing the mother of her ex-boyfriend in 2009, has been denied parole.
(File image). Photo: Unsplash / Matthew Ansley
Tonia Bennett was 16 when she and an accomplice set fire to her former boyfriend's Pukekohe home, where his mother Lynette Chapman was asleep upstairs.
She was sentenced in 2010 to a minimum period of 11 years and six months.
The Parole Board said Bennett had made "significant progress" and taken part in a drug treatment programme which helped her deal with her aggression and hostility.
But both Bennett and the board decided she was not ready to be considered for release for at least a year.