Thomas Kelly's parents believed their son's killer had changed in jail. Now ... trends now
The parents of Thomas Kelly claim they were not aware of their son's killer's violent outbursts in prison before they gave their blessing for him to be paroled.
Kieran Loveridge is due to be released from prison within the next week after the NSW State Parole Authority (SPA) found there would be a 'substantially greater risk' if he was released at a later time.
The now 30-year-old killed Mr Kelly, 18, in a 'cowardly and unprovoked' attack in July 2012, and two weeks ago Justice Geoffrey Bellew said the SPA was 'satisfied' it was in the community's interest to release Loveridge.
Mr Kelly's parents, Kathy and Ralph, supported the parole, but on Wednesday night they told ABC's 7.30 program that they did so based 'on a pack of lies' and that Loveridge had shown no remorse.
At the April parole hearing, they learned Loveridge had repeatedly been violent during his years in prison, assaulting several people, including punching a bikie in the face.
The parents of one-punch victim Thomas Kelly said they were 'blindsided' after their son's killer's most recent violent outburst was revealed at his parole hearing. Ralph and Kathy Kelly are pictured
Thomas Kelly (pictured) was killed in a 'cowardly and unprovoked' attack in July 2012
In the most recent incident, just weeks before the parole hearing, Loveridge was drunk and violent towards corrections officers.
'It's hard to believe that the State Parole Authority think that he won't be a risk to the community, or a low risk, as they say,' Mr Kelly said.
'Given that he had an outburst on the 27th of February it shows that he is still the same person that he was 12 years ago.'
Ms Kelly said Loveridge 'was drunk in prison and was aggravated. We're talking a month-and-a-half ago.
'And we weren't aware of that when we put the submission forward saying that we supported the parole. We were doing the right thing, as far as we were concerned.'
She said they only found out about the extent of Loveridge's behaviour in prison at the parole hearing 'as the judge was basically summing everything up'.
'It was disgusting,' Ms Kelly said.
'It was just appalling that that we've been kept in the dark about that, because we really went in with our submission and supported the parole on a pack of
