Life sentence for west murderer
Jaden Stroobant, who viciously beat a pensioner then sexually violated her as she lay dying, has been jailed indefinitely.
Cun Xiu Tian, 69, was beaten to death in her Te Atatu Peninsula home in January 2016.
Stroobant, 21, was sentenced at the High Court in Auckland on May 26 after pleading guilty to murder and sexual violation.
For the charge of murder Stroobant was sentenced to life with a minimum non parole period of 17 years.
For the charges of sexual violation a sentence of preventive detention with a minimum period of 10 years.
When he attacked Tian he was 19 and had been released from prison five weeks earlier and was on special release conditions after being imprisoned for burglary.
His adult criminal history included four jail terms for petty crimes such as driving offences, burglary and receiving stolen goods.
He’d had a chequered childhood and had been expelled from schools for assaulting teachers.
He had spent most of his adult life in jail for petty offences.
Defence lawyer Emma Priest said the murder and sexual violation was a huge, unexpected and uncharacteristic escalation in behaviour.
His previous most serious offending was burglary, and she told Justice Graham Lang the offending in this case was a ‘‘burglary gone wrong’’.
Crown prosecutor David Johnstone acknowledged Stroobant’s disadvantaged upbringing and adolescence but said there had been multiple attempts to intervene in his life.
‘‘My submission here is that Mr Stroobant’s behaviour displayed from a very young age, around 12, has given rise to attempts to intervene in relation to his behaviour.
‘‘He’s attended special schools, he’s had 100 hours of psychiatric support, notwithstanding that, his education efforts ceased when he was expelled on a series of occasions for punching teachers.
‘‘He then embarked on a career of burglary.’’
He asked Stroobant be granted only a small discount for his guilty plea, saying the plea had come only days before trial and only when the evidence against him became heavily stacked.