Supreme Court may quash life sentence
A convicted murderer’s sentence will be revisited for a third time after his initially lenient prison term was changed to a life sentence on appeal.
Kaine van Hemert, 43, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 11-and-a-half years in the High Court at Christchurch in October.
A Supreme Court judgment released on Wednesday granted him leave to appeal that life sentence.
Van Hemert killed 34-year-old sex worker Bella Te Pania early on December 31, 2019, after suffering a significant psychotic breakdown hours earlier.
At Van Hemert’s first sentencing in December 2020, a judge made special allowance for his mental state at the time of the murder, and jailed him for a finite term of 10 years, with the ability to apply for release after six years and eight months.
The solicitor-general appealed that sentence in the Court of Appeal, which ruled that Van Hemert should be resentenced. He was then sentenced to life imprisonment.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court granted him time extensions and leave to appeal both the Court of Appeal and resentencing judgments – effectively meaning his sentence will be revisited for a third time.
The Supreme Court said there were two particular issues that needed to be addressed. The first was whether the court was correct to treat the circumstances of the offending as having ‘‘precluded’’ a departure from the presumption of life imprisonment.
The second matter related to the correctness of the court’s assessment of Van Hemert’s circumstances.
Van Hemert had a long history of mental illness. The Court of Appeal was told that although he was mentally unwell at the time of the killing, it was not to an extent that he was legally insane, and did not know the nature and consequences of his actions.
Te Pania had a young daughter. She had worked on a project to end violence against sex workers, and received a Volunteering Canterbury award for her contribution to the community.