Colin Thatcher, the former Saskatchewan cabinet minister serving a life sentence for killing his ex-wife, was granted day parole on Friday.

"We believe your risk is assumable on day parole," National Parole Board panel member Heather Musgrove told Thatcher.

Thatcher will stay at a halfway house in Regina but is free to come and go during the day.

"You will never regret this decision," Thatcher told the three-member panel at his hearing at the Rockwood Institution near Winnipeg. "I will never embarrass you."

Thatcher must also continue with counselling and report any relationships with women.

He told the three-member parole board panel he plans to spend most of his free time at the family farm near Moose Jaw.

"A lot of money has been made on my case through the years, so I worry about people fabricating an incident," he said, with his son Greg and daughter-in-law Diane at his sides.

Friday's decision comes just two months after the board let Thatcher have short, unescorted visits with his family.

Thatcher, 67, is serving a life sentence for the 1983 first-degree murder of his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson in the garage of her Regina home.

Wilson, who was 43, was beaten almost beyond recognition before being shot in the head.

Her death came after a bitter divorce and custody battle over the three children that Thatcher and Wilson had.

Unescorted visits

On March 17, a three-member parole board panel ruled Thatcher did not pose a risk to the community and could enjoy a series of unescorted visits with his children and grandchildren.

The board authorized 16 hours per month in March and April for eight-hour visits with his son Regan, a lawyer who lives in Winnipeg.

For May, Thatcher was allowed to return to his family's cattle ranch near Moose Jaw, Sask., for up to 72 hours, plus travel time.

The decision was one of the few victories the Thatcher family has had throughout Thatcher's various appeals and appearances before the parole board.

While Thatcher has enjoyed as many as 200 escorted absences since December 2003, Thatcher's previous bids for greater freedom failed because he was considered an "undue risk" to reoffend.

He was denied parole at a hearing in March 2004.

Thatcher has always maintained his innocence -- something the parole board has said makes it difficult to accurately assess how much he has truly changed.

Biographer Garrett Wilson, who wrote Deny, Deny, Deny: The Rise and Fall of Colin Thatcher, recalled the former Saskatchewan cabinet minister as having a difficult demeanor.

"I thought he was an arrogant sort of a guy, pretty down-putting for anyone around, very volatile temper -- not a pleasant personality at all," Wilson told CTV Newsnet Friday.

At his last hearing, Thatcher told the panel his time behind bars has mellowed him and turned him into a more patient person.

He also acknowledged his passive-aggressive behaviour toward his wife was "probably the most insidious thing I did'' and was likely responsible for the collapse of the marriage.

Thatcher is the son of former Saskatchewan Liberal premier Ross Thatcher. He was a one-time cabinet minister in Grant Devine's Tory government.

With files from The Canadian Press