Judge says home detention is a serious and deterrent punishment
A judge says home detention for a man who punched another, and left him to die during a road rage incident, is a serious and deterrent punishment
7 December 2018
Justice Kit Toogood yesterday sentenced Northland man Patrick Tarawa to 10 months' home detention and 300 hours' community work for the manslaughter of Chris Vujcich
He says he was persuaded by a number of factors not to send the father of one to jail.
They include Tarawa's high degree of family support, genuine remorse, adherence to strict bail terms and prospects for rehabilitation for the father of one.
But Ngati Kura elder and former Maori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels says New Zealanders will see the non-custodial sentence as "very lenient".
He told the Northern Advocate it seems the seriousness of the crime can be mitigated by the individual circumstances of the person who committed it.
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