Eighteen years after being convicted of stabbing and slashing his best friend's mother 52 times inside her St. John's home, Brian Doyle has been granted day parole.

Doyle killed Catherine Carroll on New Year's Day in 1991 after breaking in through her basement window.

He later watched as her son, Gregory Parsons, took the fall in a wrongful murder conviction that later sparked an inquiry into Newfoundland and Labrador's judicial system.

Parsons was exonerated in 1998. Another four years passed until Doyle was convicted, the result of a Mr. Big sting with undercover police officers.

Now Doyle is allowed out of prison, with the condition that he return to his halfway house each night and stay away from Newfoundland and Labrador.

He's also not allowed to consume alcohol or drugs, and must undergo mental health counselling specific to the sexual nature of his crime.

"You exposed the family to the trauma of a trial involving the victim's son, and only co-operated and confessed as a result of conversations you had with investigators who you did not know were police," the parole judgment reads.

"The judge also commented that the notion of a 'killer slashing his victim and then calmly showering off the splattered blood [exposes] a flawed humanity.'"

Doyle was high and drunk when he broke into the house after a New Year's Eve party. He later claimed he was in a relationship with Carroll — a claim Parsons rejects — and she refused to sleep with him that night.

Parsons quickly became the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary's prime suspect. He was convicted in 1994, but was soon released on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.

It was another four years until he was cleared by the courts, based on DNA evidence. Parsons was given two $650,000 payments by the provincial government for his wrongful conviction.

The Parsons case was key to a judicial inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Antonio Lamer, who faulted the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for "tunnel vision" in two murder investigations.

According to the parole documents, Doyle went on the run to the United States after stealing money from a drug trafficking accomplice in 1995. He was arrested in New Mexico with a stolen car and was deported to Ontario in the late 1990s.

In 2002, he confessed to undercover police officers that he had killed Carroll. The officers pretended to hire Doyle to kill someone for $20,000. He told them he could do it in a way that would make someone else look guilty.

Doyle is now listed as a moderate risk to reoffend.

Parsons wanted to be in British Columbia for Doyle's parole hearing, but was unable to attend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He requested the hearing be delayed, but the Parole Board of Canada proceeded without him present.

Parsons instead sent along a victim impact statement. The parole decision says Doyle became emotional as the statements were read aloud.

"You shared that you are aware of the pain you have caused and that you live everyday with what you have done," the parole decision reads.

"You said that you are sorry and that you never meant for any of this to happen. However, the board did find that your request at the end of the hearing for 'everyone to move on and find peace' to lack the level of insight one would expect at this point in your sentence regarding the significance of the hurt and harm the victims continue to live with each day."

Doyle attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in prison, and was granted leave to attend them in the community. The decision said Doyle withdrew from the leave of absence program after other inmates were using the trips to smuggle contraband back into the prison.

He's been considered minimum security since 2015, and was staying at the minimum security William's Head Institution in British Columbia. Parsons previously spoke out about comfortable conditions in the prison, which mostly houses white-collar criminals.