Who Is Phillip Smith?

Born Phillip Traynor in Wellington in 1974, Phillip grew up in Carterton. He adopted his step-father's surname Smith from the age of 4 years old.

He enjoyed BMX racing and motorbikes as a child, as well as overseas travel that would apparently rub off in his later adult years in a rather unexpected trip to Brazil after escaping from prison no less. As a teenager and young adult he enjoyed karate, computer games, and camping.

He had a disruptive home life as a child, where violence and psychological abuse were his unfortunate norm. Our experience however is that he chooses not to speak of these experiences as an excuse for his own later behaviour. 

We know that Phillip finds freedom from his own negative experiences in forgiveness of the people that caused him that harm. It follows that he does not refer to himself as a victim but as a survivour. 

Phillip left school at the age of 17 with no formal qualifications but in subsequent years he went on to study at university where in 2014 he graduated with two bachelors degrees. He also achieved five national certificates on the NZQA framework.

Subsequently, he has put those skills to productive use in both business and the law.

Phillip is known to advocate for change within the prison system often making personal sacrifices in the process for the attention that it brings him. We know that he believes in the normalisation of prison conditions as a more effective way of rehabilitating prisoners.

Phillip makes a point of being happy, and we often hear him lamenting the same. We would make the observation that if anyone thought that he is suffering in prison, they would be wrong. Sadly, that will anger some people. 

We know Phillip has considerable regret for his terrible actions in December 1995, as well as his earlier actions.

Our experience of Phillip is warm, loving and compassionate. A man that knows the mistakes of his past but refuses to be defined by them. He is always willing to help when asked, if he needs to be asked at all. We know him to be consistently loyal and reliable. 

We also know that Phillip can still sometimes make mistakes. There is a recent example of that in relation to his convictions in July 2023 for dishonesty offending that occurred as recently as 2020. Some people will say that this means that he hasn't changed.  We believe that this more recent offending is an opportunity for him to continue learn and to further grow as a person, and we will support him fully through that process including his efforts at rehabilitation to address this type of offending.

So there is a brief, alternative perspective of who Phillip Smith is. Not the demon he is portrayed to be by many, but human, a man, and to us, a respected and much loved one that we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with until the end, whatever that end maybe.

We encourage others to rise above the hate, to show a more caring character, and to join us in supporting Phillip on the next stage of his journey. A journey that we support, being his journey home.