Warning: This story may disturb some people.
The former partner of a man charged with attempting to murder their three children is terrified he's going to come after her when he's freed from prison later this month.
Faamanu Milford has served his sentence, but his case will be reviewed at a special hearing on Wednesday.
Eleven years ago, the Wellington man attacked his young children - then aged three, 18 months and just seven weeks - with a machete and a knife.
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"His eyes were black," says their mother, who wants to remain anonymous.
"There was no brown and he didn't appear human anymore."
Milford faced three charges of attempted murder and kidnapping, but was convicted on the lesser charges of grievous bodily harm.
"Our eldest daughter was stabbed directly in the mouth," says his former partner.
"Not, in my view, indicative of assault. That's indicative of an horrific attempt at murder."
Another daughter was stabbed so close to her spinal cord, it was inoperable. As a result, she'll never be able to lift her arms above her head.
"That doesn't seem like a big thing until you watch your child try to freestyle swim, or put their jumper on, or do star jumps. That's when you see it."
Milford, she says, was jealous and paranoid and continues to have mental health problems.
The Parole Board decision describes Milford's "ongoing difficulty in hearing voices", limited coping skills and isolation from community support.
He is due out of prison later in March, and will be handed over to Community Mental Health for oversight of his mental health and medication.
"He's not actually being paroled," says victim advocate Leigh Woodman.
"He's got to his sentence release date and the parole board has got no choice but to release him."
Milford's ex-partner and her children have moved house.
"I don't have faith in the system as it stands that my family was safe where we lived," she says.
In a strongly worded letter, police supported her request for emergency social housing, saying she has "little doubt that he will seek to find her upon his release".
"Police completely agree with her concerns. Her ex-partner is an extremely violent man, and poses a real threat of-re-offending."
Milford's ex-partner is very concerned about the potential threat he poses to her family.
"I know him to be volatile, I know him to be calculating, I know him to be unrelenting," she says.
"I have to say something, or he wins."
She doesn't believe she and her children will be safe if he is allowed to go free.
"He needs to be put in a psychiatric institution and he needs to remain there. He cannot get out. I understand the law, but he cannot get out."
Newshub asked health authorities why he isn't being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but officials won't discuss individual cases.
The Parole Board told Newshub that it has set conditions to apply from his release date for six months.
However, Mr Milford's current release conditions are subject to variation at a hearing on March 7, following an application by the Department of Corrections
The Parole Board goes on to say that it doesn't usually take oral submissions from victims at variation hearings, but will do so in this case as it takes the family's concerns very seriously.
Newshub.