Newly paroled convicted murderer Teina Pora has been promised an apprenticeship when his case settles down, the Parole Board says.
The 38-year-old has been serving a life sentence for the 1992 rape and murder of Auckland woman Susan Burdett - crimes he denies having committed.
Pora made his 13th appearance before the Parole Board at the maximum security prison at Paremoremo in Auckland on Monday morning.
The board said he no longer posed an undue risk to the safety of the community and would be released on an undisclosed date.
In details of the decision released on Wednesday, the board said Pora's support network remained exceptionally strong.
Pora has been participating in the prison's release-to-work scheme and his employer through that was interested in giving him an apprenticeship - but only when all the hype and attention had settled down, the board said.
Pora's lawyer, Jonathan Krebs, said it was a wonderful opportunity.
"He has no work experience, other than the short time he's been on release-to-work, and the various menial tasks which prisoners get to perform," Mr Krebs said.
"So to be taken under a person's wing in the way that his employer has done is very special."
Pora continues to protest his innocence, and will have his appeal against his convictions heard before the Privy Council in London later in the year.
