NT police call about murderer on parole went unanswered

Police officers who let a parolled murderer go after finding him with cannabis left a message notifying the Department of Corrections that went unheard for almost two days.

Peter Michael Kamm, 50, was on the run for about 24 hours before being recaptured by police in Alice Springs on Wednesday night.

He cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet on Tuesday afternoon after receiving a phone call from corrections notifying him his parole would be revoked for a minor drug infringement which breached his parole conditions.

Kamm had been out on parole for two months when police pulled him over for a traffic violation about 8pm on Saturday night, and discovered he had eight grams of cannabis, for which they issued him with a $293 fine before letting him go.

A timeline released by the Northern Territory Police on Thursday reveals a message was left on the Community Corrections 1800 number on Saturday night to notify them after Kamm was stopped "with the belief that this was the after-hours on call number" but which was not accessed until Monday morning.

Although Kamm complied with meeting requests and passed a urine test on Monday, on Tuesday his parole was revoked and about half and hour after he was telephoned about it and told police would be coming to take him back to prison, he escaped.

Kamm was recaptured without incident, and appeared in the Alice Springs Magistrates Court on Thursday where he was ordered to return to jail to continue serving his life sentence for the shooting murder of 19-year-old Dean Robinson while on a hunting trip near Borroloola in 1989.