<\/p>\n
\nJock Davis.
\nPhoto: Facebook\n<\/p>\n
The family of a young man shot and killed by a hunter on Stewart Island last year say the hunter’s failure to identify his target has left them facing a “lifetime of hell”.<\/p>\n
Ashburton builder Paul William John Stevens, 39, has avoided jail time and instead been sentenced to five months’ home detention for shooting Jock Davies, 21, last July.<\/p>\n
He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of careless use of a firearm causing death.<\/p>\n
At the Invercargill District Court on Tuesday, Judge Russell Walker ordered Stevens to make $20,000 in reparation payments, split equally between a scholarship in Jock Davies’ name for West Otago students and a New Zealand Deerstalkers Association hunter safety course.<\/p>\n
Davies’ mother Sarah Davies told the court she never anticipated her son, who was a cancer survivor, would not return from the week-long much-anticipated hunting trip with his father and brothers.<\/p>\n
“I miss Jock every day, I miss the twinkle in his eye, his naughty sense of humour. I miss his laughter, the way he used to light up a room. I miss his resilience, his kindness and I miss him leaving the lights on. Jock was one special human,” she said.<\/p>\n
Davies’ oldest brother George Davies told Stevens that he had failed as a firearms licence-holder and the family was facing “lifelong effects” as a result.<\/p>\n
He spoke of the trauma of seeing his brother after the shooting.<\/p>\n
“The impact of having to carry my dead brother up the hill to rescuers is something I will have to live with forever, it’s something no-one should have to do. It was meant to be a trip of a lifetime which turned into a lifetime of hell,” he said.<\/p>\n
Davies’ brother Tom Davies described the eight months since the death as a “living nightmare”.<\/p>\n
“I’ve found myself in a dark hole where I didn’t know what was right or wrong anymore. It has been a battle to leave the house some days,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4JSCB5W_IMG_0033_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPaul William John Stevens in court.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Katie Todd\n<\/p>\n
Jock Davies had been intending to join him in Christchurch at teachers’ college and it left a “huge ache” in his heart and soul to know that would not happen, he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m trying my absolute hardest to be there for my family as we navigate a new way of life,” he said.<\/p>\n
Davies’ father Peter Davies said his son had touched many lives, with his funeral attended by more than 1000 people.<\/p>\n
“As a dad there should have been so many more proud moments, but now there’s only memories,” he said.<\/p>\n
Stevens sat quietly, crying, as the victim impact statements were read to the court.<\/p>\n
His lawyer Grant Fletcher told the court that Stevens, a father of two, could not possibly regret his actions more.<\/p>\n
“He would do anything to make it right but obviously he can’t,” he said.<\/p>\n
“He’s offered his most heartfelt, most sincere, most genuine remorse and regret.”<\/p>\n
Reading from a summary of facts, Judge Walker said Stevens and Davies were part of the same group of eight people on the week-long trip, hunting in the South Lords River block.<\/p>\n
The group split up on the morning of 6 July and Davies was dropped off from a dinghy, while Stevens and another associate went in the opposite direction to hunt.<\/p>\n
Stevens told police the terrain was “gnarly and hard-going,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You said you were not used to hunting in such thick and challenging bush.”<\/p>\n
Stevens heard a shuffling noise 20 metres away and saw a “dark shadowy image”, he said.<\/p>\n
“Confident it was a deer and not wanting to miss the opportunity, you chambered a round in your rifle and fired a single telescopically-aimed shot,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You aimed for what you believed was the neck area of the deer.”<\/p>\n
A rescue helicopter was dispatched at about 11am but when it arrived two hours later Davies was dead, he said.<\/p>\n
Judge Walker found Stevens’ actions to show a “medium-to-high level of carelessness”.<\/p>\n
Stevens “would and should have been well aware of the dangers of hunting” but did not attempt to sight the deer with his own eyes, he said.<\/p>\n
“The terrain was challenging for you to the extent that you discussed turning back. You were clearly aware that others would have been in the area,” he said.<\/p>\n
He found Stevens’ remorse to be genuine and said Davies’ death would have a life-long impact.<\/p>\n
“I accept the mental health impact that this has had and will continue to have upon you. It is rightly described as profound,” he said.<\/p>\n
From a starting point of 18 months’ imprisonment, Walker deducted eight months for mitigating factors and converted the resulting 10 months’ imprisonment into five months’ home detention.<\/p>\n
He also ordered the forfeiture of Stevens’ rifle and ammunition.<\/p>\n