Youth gets three-year sentence for manslaughter
A 17-year-old youth has been sentenced to three year’s detention for the manslaughter of a 51-year-old man at Wonthella on June 26 last year.
The youth was originally charged with murder but a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Justice John McKechnie said the youth was drinking in a Seventh Street house and became embroiled in a “significant” brawl with the victim during which the youth may have been threatened with a knife.
Sometime between 3am and 5.30am, the youth attacked the victim in the driveway with a paver, causing extensive head injuries.
Justice McKechnie said when the youth realised the man was dead, he ran off, collected some hose and went to a nearby park where he attempted to hang itself.
A woman walking her dogs stopped him, and he was taken back to the house, but ran out onto the road again, wishing to die or be run over.
His friends took him to hospital for treatment before he was arrested.
Justice McKechnie described the offence as a brutal manslaughter, explained but not excused by intoxication of both the youth and his victim.
The judge made the youth eligible for parole after serving half his sentence.
