Manslaughter sentence to stay after wife’s appeal bid fails in court

But, similarly, a sentence of 11 months’ home detention is at the very low end of the scale of manslaughter sentences.

A woman sentenced to home detention for killing her husband in Taranaki has had her appeal dismissed.

Susan Elizabeth Mouat was sentenced to 11 months home detention by Justice Peter Churchman in October after she admitted the manslaughter of Bruce Mouat in 2011.

Mouat’s husband died in hospital after being pushed by her and falling down a set of steps outside their Ha¯wera home in July 2011 and hitting his head on a concrete paver.

The police investigation was closed with no charges being laid and the coroner ruled the death to be an accident after Mouat repeatedly denied any involvement in his death, claiming she had been in bed when Bruce returned home drunk from a work function.

Mouat pleaded guilty to Bruce’s manslaughter in September 2017 after she had been given a sentencing indication.

However in November her lawyer Russell Fairbrother QC argued the sentence of home detention should be commuted to community detention in the Court of Appeal in Wellington.

Fairbrother submitted Mouat’s culpability was her negligent failure to consider the danger pushing him back when he tried to re-enter the house and was not an intentional assault.

The crown submitted home detention was the appropriate sentence.

The Court of Appeal judges accepted Mouat’s culpability was very low.

‘‘But, similarly, a sentence of 11 months’ home detention is at the very low end of the scale of manslaughter sentences.

‘‘We do not accept Mr Fairbrother’s proposition that Mrs Mouat’s culpability is for a purely negligent act. By her own account, Mrs Mouat deliberated pushed her husband, albeit to prevent him reentering the house.’’

The judges found Mouat was well aware at the time her husband fell and hit his head, he had died as a result of her actions.

It wasn’t until five years after Bruce was killed that she was charged with his manslaughter.

Guilt got the better of Mouat – who had 17 previous convictions, the majority for violence and threats towards Bruce – in 2016 when she confessed to police detectives she had pushed him in the chest in self defence telling them keeping the secret had made her sick.

The court found the discount provided by the sentencing Judge, Churchman, is those circumstances could be seen by some as generous.

The Appeal Court judges reserved their decision but released a judgement dismissing Mouat’s appeal yesterday.