A decision on whether to release Nowra child killer Austin Allan Hughes from prison has been deferred until next month.
The State Parole Authority today said it needed more time to assess the large volume of information in relation to the 1993 murder, and for Hughes to have a full psychological assessment.
Hughes has spent the past 16 years in prison for the the brutal murder of six-year-old John Ashfield.
Hughes and John's mother - who can not be identified for legal reasons - beat the boy to death in a prolonged and horrific assault.
Family's plea to keep Hughes behind bars The pair punched and kicked the child, beat him with a hammer and smashed his head into a tiled wall during a three-hour attack.
John's siblings were encouraged to jump on the boy from a top bunk and Hughes and his de facto stamped on his feet. John died at Westmead Hospital from severe head injuries.
Hughes and John's mother pleaded guilty to the boy's murder a year after he died.
They were sentenced to 21 years' jail each, which was later reduced to 19 years on appeal.
They have now served 16 years of their sentences and both applied for parole this year.
The woman was refused, however on October 1 the State Parole Authority recommended Hughes be released to the community pending a public hearing today.
Hughes appeared at the parole hearing in Parramatta via video link from prison.
He bowed his head as a statement by Melissa Ashfield, John's sister, was read tot he parole hearing.
"They took him to the bathroom and smashed his head on the tiles,'' the statement said.
"It is very hard every time parole comes up we are forced to bring back the flashbacks.
"I will never be able to see my brother, I will never be able to get to know him.
"He (Hughes) wants to get out two years early, but I never got those two years with my brother.''
Melissa and another sibling waived their statutory right to anonymity, allowing the Mercury to identify their brother, as part of the family's campaign to keep John's killers behind bars.
State Parole Authority chairman Ian Pike addressed John's family today, saying he had been personally involved with the case for a couple of years.
"Nobody could read this file and not be traumatised by the kind of grief you must be suffering," he said.
"I can do nothing more than quote NSW Supreme Court Justice Jeremy Badgery-Parker (who in sentencing said): 'One could readily imagine the terror and despair of the child as those he thought loved him treated him with such hideous brutality'. No more than that needs to be said."
Crown solicitor Christopher Lonergin opposed parole on the basis that there were no firm plans in place for Hughes after the first three months of his release, and that Hughes had not shown sufficient remorse.
However Hughes' lawyer said there was a possibility he suffered Asperger syndrome or another autistic spectrum disorder, which could account for his apparent lack of emotion.
Hughes will undergo a full psychological assessment before appearing before the parole authority again on December 8.
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