• Eye surgeon Ian Dallison, jailed for attempting to murder his landlord, has been granted parole.
• Dallison was sentenced to six years and ten months for the 2022 attack.
• He will be released in early June, with conditions, after the Parole Board deemed him no longer a risk.

The prominent eye surgeon and partner of a District Court judge jailed for attempting to murder his landlord has been granted parole and will be released from prison next month.

Ian Dallison, 66, was jailed for six years and 10 months after pleading guilty to one charge of attempting to murder Alberto Ceccarelli and one of wounding the man’s wife, Antje Schmidt, 52, with intent to commit grievous bodily harm in August 2022.

Dallison, who has previously said he is in a relationship with District Court Judge Jane Farish, sold the Merivale property where his practice was located to Ceccarelli after the Christchurch earthquake.

After it was redeveloped, Dallison took on a long-term commercial lease.

Over the years, his practice struggled financially, and he was unable to meet operating expenses, and by the end of 2020, he had gotten into a large amount of debt.

Ceccarelli evicted him.

As a result, Dallison was declared bankrupt and later day he went to Ceccarelli’s home and tried to kill him.

Dallison appeared before the Parole Board for the first time in November 2024 and was refused an early release due to his risk of “extreme violent response to a stressful situation”.

He appeared again this morning and the board was satisfied he no longer posed a risk to community safety.

The eye surgeon was granted parole, subject to a number of conditions.

He will be released in early June.

Dallison’s victims were notified about the decision before the Herald could report the hearing result.

A full decision with the Parole Board’s reasons and Dallison’s conditions will be released later.

He must appear before the board again for a monitoring hearing in October.

The first parole hearing - what the board decided

At Dallison’s first parole hearing, the board revealed he had a conviction for male assaults female from 1991.

His victims told the board that they believe Dallison should serve his full sentence.

“They said that Mr Dallison is an educated man who has lived a privileged life, and they cannot understand why he would break into their home and try to murder the male victim,” said panel convenor Kathryn Snook.

“They told the Board that Mr Dallison had the funds to pay his debts but refused to do so. The offending has caused serious psychological and physical injuries to the victims and has had a massive negative impact on their lives.

“They also fear retribution from Mr Dallison… They are also concerned that now that Mr Dallison has lost his eye practice, his house, his reputation, and his expensive lifestyle, he does not have anything else to lose. They see that as increasing risk in Mr Dallison’s case.”

In response, Dallison told the board he “does have things to live for”.

“He feels he has a positive future and retains a good network of support. He is now in retirement mode, so does not need his previous employment,” Snook said.

Dalllison confirmed in the hearing he was still in a relationship with Judge Farish.

Dr Ian Dallison and Judge Jane Farish. Composite photo / NZME

The board heard that Dallison had participated in 15 sessions of one-to-one treatment with a psychologist.

“The board spent some time talking to Mr Dallison about what happened and why he committed the offending,” Snook said.

“He described it as a perfect storm of issues that he had not adequately dealt with. This includes a view about the legal system due to matrimonial issues that had arisen in the past, the global financial crisis, a divorce where he had felt financially hard done by the earthquake which led him to have his premises rebuilt, which was funded by the victim, as well as Covid.

“What is noted is that while the offending presents as a major departure from Mr Dallison’s normal character, the psychologist said that there are aspects of his thinking, emotions and behaviour that do represent well-established patterns.

“In particular, the psychologist concludes that Mr Dallison does not take kindly to anyone with whom he has a financial dispute, be it former spouses, family, or business partners. In such situations, Mr Dallison is said to become arrogant, irrational, angry and uncompromising.”

At the hearing, he spoke for the first time about his offending, saying “it seemed like there was no future” on the day and he got “wound up”.

He told the board he remembered pointing the gun at his former landlord and then the situation “became a bit of a blur”.

“Next thing it went off. I don’t remember deliberately saying, ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ bang, pulling the trigger hard or anything like that,” he said.

“Rationality had gone out the window. It was just like everything was narrowing down. I didn’t have access to any money.”

Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 19 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz