Appeal abandoned
Corrections has abandoned its appeal against the sentence it received after the death of a Nelson man on his first day of a courtordered community work sentence.
The mother of victim Robert Cave said, when she was told of the news on Thursday morning: ‘‘Thank God.
‘‘I just want it over, I just want it finished,’’ Gail Denton said. ‘‘It’s just a relief.’’
Corrections was found guilty of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure Cave, 26, was not harmed while he was doing community work at Wakefield, southwest of Nelson.
Under a sentence imposed in December 2016, Corrections was ordered to pay reparation to Denton and other family members.
Now it says it will pay the money to the Ministry of Justice in the next week, and from there it would be paid to the victims.
Corrections deputy chief executive of corporate services Vincent Arbuckle said it decided it was not in the public interest to continue with the appeal.
Cave died on June 7, 2014 while helping another man cut a log into rounds at a church property.
As a government department, Corrections could not be fined, but it could be ordered to pay reparation.
Chief District Court judge JanMarie Doogue ordered it to pay $60,000 to Cave’s widow Sophie, $15,000 to be held in trust for each of his five children, and $10,000 each to his mother and father.
The man who had been working with Cave was also due to get reparation for the physical and emotional harm he suffered.
He injured his back trying to lift the log off Cave, and reportedly had post-traumatic stress disorder and other emotional after-effects, and had been blaming himself.
Corrections had a restorative justice meeting with family members, apologised, and told them about the steps it would take to deal with what had happened.
At sentencing, it asked for reparation to Cave’s family to be limited to $75,000, and disputed that the other man involved was legally a ‘‘victim’’.
Arbuckle said that, in the wake of the death, Corrections changed the way it organised community work projects, and trained its staff to be better able to assess site safety and identify hazards.