Sentenced for manslaughter
AFTER attacking his ‘‘best friend’’, Jason Karl Blackler took a taxi to his girlfriend’s house and left the man for dead.
The 48yearold was found guilty of the manslaughter of Alan James Fahey (66) following a jury trial in the High Court at Dunedin last month. Yesterday, Justice Helen Dunningham sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.
‘‘He was older than you and smaller than you,’’ she told Blackler.
‘‘You knew when you left the house you had killed or probably killed him . . . and you did nothing about that.’’
The judge said Mr Fahey had taken Blackler under his wing and let him move into his Brockville Rd flat.
That showed a ‘‘generosity of spirit’’, she said.
The relationship soured following a daylong drinking session at the flat on October 25, 2016, when the pair consumed almost a whole bottle of Jagermeister and a box of beer.
Blackler said Mr Fahey — known to his mates as ‘‘God’’, an acronym for ‘‘Grumpy Old Dec orator’’ — made sexually inappropriate comments about his terminallyill sister.
After that he blacked out and could not remember any ensuing violence, he told police.
Justice Dunningham said the defendant became enraged and delivered several blows, at least one of which was inflicted while the man was on the ground.
However, she rejected the Crown’s suggestion a bloodied singlet found beside the body had been used as a ligature to strangle the victim.
Bloody footprints from Mr Fahey’s body leading to the bathroom showed Blackler tried to wash himself after the attack, but he could not cleanse himself of all evidence, the Crown said.
A taxi he took from his house to his thenpartner’s address in Corstorphine that night was combed by forensic investigators.
They found traces of blood 600,000 million times more likely to be from Mr Fahey than anyone else in the country, on a passenger seat panel.
Defence counsel Anne Stevens said her client’s grief was apparent in an interview with police the day after the incident.
Blackler was filmed sobbing and apologising to the dead man when left in an empty room at the station.
Mrs Stevens highlighted the evidence given at trial by forensic pathologist Dr Martin Sage, who said Mr Fahey’s facial injuries were nonfatal alone.
He presented a complex picture of the victim’s health, she said, including issues related to age, alcoholism, ill health in the days leading up to death, and very severe coronary disease.
The court heard yesterday Blackler was subject to release conditions at the time he killed his friend and had a lengthy criminal history.
Of his 150 previous convictions, 17 were for violence, including threats and weapons charges, Justice Dunningham said.
While Blackler claimed he wanted to meet Mr Fahey’s family, the judge said he did not accept he was guilty of the crime. ‘‘You see yourself as a victim. ‘‘I can only hope hearing from the other people affected by your actions gives you some insight.’’
The Otago Daily Times revealed, after the guilty verdict, that Blackler had stabbed his dog with hedge clippers two and ahalf years before committing the manslaughter.
As was the case with Mr Fahey, he described the victim as his ‘‘best friend’’.
Blackler was assessed by Probation as a high likelihood of reoffending and a very high risk of harm to others.
Justice Dunnigham imposed a minimum nonparole period of three and ahalf years.