A long-awaited official inquiry into the escape of the convicted murderer and sex offender Phillip John Smith has found a wide range of failings in several state agencies enabled him to leave the country.
The report was commissioned after Smith fled to South America while on short-term release from Springhill Prison in Waikato.

He was serving a life sentence for murdering the father of a boy he had sexually assaulted, for kidnapping, and other charges.
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