Appeal over log death is abandoned
Corrections has abandoned its appeal against the sentence it received after the death of a man on his first day of a court-ordered 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.
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 will 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, at Nelson 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, essentially blaming himself for the death.
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’’.
Cave’s widow declined an offer for Corrections to arrange counselling for her, and for a gift basket when she gave birth to his daughter after his death. Corrections took action to cancel her own community work sentence.
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.
It paid more attention to how projects were set up, so the agreed work was not changed. Projects or agencies that did not keep to safety guidelines or the agreed work plan were not given community workers. In 2016, nearly 2 million hours of community work were done under court-ordered sentences.