ANDREA VANCE

MICHAEL BEAUMONT/Fairfax NZ

SET FREE: Sean Davison with his dogs Buzz and Kuri.

ASSISTED DEATH: Patricia Davidson, 85, was terminally ill and suffering when she died in 2006.

Breathing in the tang of sea air, Sean Davison tasted freedom for the first time in five months.

For weeks a small, secluded Dunedin bungalow has been the prison where he served home detention for assisting his cancer-ravaged mother to die.

About 9.30am yesterday, he was freed from his electronic bracelet with a pair of scissors.

He took his first steps outside on the beach before running up Mt Cargill with his dog. "It was a tremendous relief. Freedom, fresh air, exercise," he said.

Mr Davison, 50, a microbiologist, was convicted last year for counselling and procuring attempted suicide. After nursing his dying mother Patricia, 85, for three months in 2006, he mixed a potion of crushed morphine tablets to help her slip away.

She asked for his help five weeks into a hunger strike his sister and a neighbour had refused.

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Freedom for son who helped