HALIFAX -- A former manager at the New Brunswick prison that once housed Allan Legere says the so-called "monster of the Miramichi" should never be housed in anything less than a maximum-security prison.

"I'm convinced to this day that if he gets out on day parole he will go AWOL, and if he goes absent without leave, he will head back to the Miramichi and he will start his reign of terror again," John Harris said in an interview with CTV Atlantic.

Harris says the Parole Board of Canada has not asked him for any input yet, but he said his recommendation would be for them to reject Legere's bid for day parole.

"My recommendation would be very clearly 'No,'" Harris said. "This man should never ever have the opportunity to be controlled in a lesser atmosphere than maximum security."

John Harris conducted multiple interviews with Legere while Legere was housed at the correctional centre in Renous, N.B.

At the time Harris was a senior manager at the maximum security prison.

Legere was serving time for murder for the 1986 killing of shopkeeper John Glendenning when he escaped custody in 1989.

He fled during a visit to the Georges Dumont Hospital in Moncton after complaining about an earache.

Inside a washroom, Legere got out of his handcuffs and leg irons, raced past the guards and ran out of the hospital.

On the loose for seven months, he committed arson, rape and four more murders.

He killed elderly shopkeeper Annie Flam, Donna and Linda Daughney -- and an elderly priest, Father James Smith.

Legere was on his way back to the Miramichi from Saint John when he was captured. He had taken a truck driver hostage, but, when police caught him at a road block, he surrendered.

Legere had been kept in a special handling unit in a super maximum security prison in Quebec, but back in 2015 reports indicate he was moved to a prison in Edmonton.

Now in his 70s, the notorious killer has applied for day parole which allows offenders to take part in community-based activities to prepare for release on full parole.

There's also the potential to be housed in a half-way house.

When Harris learned Legere was applying for day parole, he wanted to speak out about the threat he poses to public safety and he wanted the people reviewing his file to understand the "monstrous person that (Legere) really is."