Courts face judgment in Moko case
There will be protest marches across NZ tomorrow, putting pressure on court to hand down life sentences for the killers of little Moko. Matt Shand reports.
Moko Rangitoheriri’s mischievous smile, his family say, could let him get away with murder.
That was when he was being cheeky – and being cheeky is what he did best.
Before he was placed in the cruel care of David Haerewa and Tania Shailer, the child’s life revolved around Bob the Builder, Go-Fish, and playing with his brother and sister.
‘‘He was such a little go-kart kid,’’ a family member said. ‘‘He was always running somewhere.’’
Many families have similarly quipped that their children could get away with murder. It’s an expression used at coffee groups and kindergarten playgrounds.
No one really gets away with murder. At least not with a smile.
Tomorrow, in the High Court at Rotorua, Tania Shailer and David Haerewa will be sentenced for manslaughter, after prosecutors decided they couldn’t make murder charges stick. In the 30 seats in the public gallery and outside, among the placardbearing protesters, will be members of Black Power, Maori sovereignty activists, and Sensible Sentencing Trust lobbyists.
Over two months before his death in August, Moko endured being repeatedly hit, kicked, thrown, dropped face-first on the floor and bitten. He was stomped on with such force his bowel ruptured, causing infection.
Yet it is believed prosecutors dropped a murder charge, not because they couldn’t prove the couple’s murderous intent, but because the little boy took so long to die – in such agony – that they could not be certain of convincing a jury that it was the violence that caused his death.
As with the death of 15-year-old Stephen Dudley in a schoolboy fight, there could have been other health problems, such as infection, that contributed to Moko’s death.
Senior government figures are talking up a life sentence – a term that can, on rare occasions, be imposed for the most brutal cases of manslaughter.
But Sensible Sentencing Trust legal advisers have found a precedent which suggests a different result.
Founder Garth McVicar predicts the killers could be jailed for as few as four years. One more than Moko lived.
‘‘Police did the right thing,’’ he said. ‘‘They charged Moko’s killers with murder. But his killers were able to enter into a plea-bargain arrangement that allowed them to
His killers were able to enter into a plea-bargain arrangement. That is an insult to Moko. Garth McVicar Sensible Sentencing Trust
plead guilty to manslaughter. That is an insult to Moko.’’
The downgrading to manslaughter charges has outraged New Zealand and tomorrow, thousands will march on courts across the country. Marches have even been organised in Australia.
Attorney General Chris Finlayson has slammed all criticism of the plea deal as ‘‘dangerous and ill-informed’’. He will explain the decision ‘‘in words of one syllable’’ after tomorrow’s sentencing.
The Solicitor-General provides prosecution guidelines which Crown solicitors must follow, Finlayson says, the decision to drop a murder charge was signed off by Solicitor-General Una Jagose.
McVicar said: ‘‘While the maximum penalty for manslaughter is in theory life, the sentencing judge is closely constrained both by the provisions of the Sentencing Act – which require him to impose the least restrictive sentence possible, and precedent. He is also required to have regard to, and give a discount for, an early guilty plea.’’
The closest precedent McVicar’s lawyers could find was the 2006 killing of Ngatikaura Ngati. Like Moko, Ngatikaura was three years old and suffered sustained abuse. His mother, Maine Ngati, and stepfather Teusila Fa’asisila, were tried for his murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
‘‘Their sentence was 8 years and 7 months, with a minimum nonparole period of 4 years 3 months,’’ McVicar said. ‘‘The judge in this case is very competent, but he will be bound by precedent.’’
Tomorrow is judgement day for Moko’s killers, and for some judgement day for the legal system. One their way to prison they will likely pass thousands of marchers taking to the street in protest of the manslaughter charges in Rotorua.