Trust secretary Mike Angove said the case highlighted what it called a \u201csystemic failure\u201d in New Zealand\u2019s sentencing laws for coward punch killings.<\/p>\n
The bill would create new coward-punch offences and toughen penalties for some one-punch attacks.<\/p>\n
The Auckland-based organisation supported the proposed offences but said they would do little to change sentencing outcomes unless Parliament also introduced mandatory minimum prison terms.<\/p>\n
Angove travelled to Wellington this week to present the submission, telling MPs Nganeko\u2019s killing illustrated why the law needed to change.<\/p>\n
Daniel Nganeko, 37, (insert) was killed by Daytona Thompson after being struck by a coward punch.<\/p>\n
Angove said outcomes like Thompson\u2019s sentencing reflected a sentencing framework that allowed penalties for fatal coward punch attacks to remain relatively low.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cases are not outliers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the product of a sentencing framework that has no minimum floor for taking a human life with a coward punch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Paul Radich, who sentenced Thompson, noted during the hearing that he was required to apply sentencing law as it currently stood.<\/p>\n
Angove said that reinforced the trust\u2019s argument that the issue lay with legislation rather than judicial decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudges are constrained by the Sentencing Act and by precedent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Walk Without Fear was established following the 2021 death of City Kickboxing athlete Fau Vake, who died after being punched while walking home with his brother in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Vake spent nine days in an induced coma before life support was withdrawn. He left behind a young daughter.<\/p>\n
Fau Vake. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
His attacker was sentenced to two years and nine months\u2019 imprisonment and was released on parole after about 11 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cEleven months for a man\u2019s life,\u201d Angove said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis family serves a life sentence. The killer did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to figures included in the trust\u2019s submission, the average prison sentence in New Zealand for manslaughter caused by a coward punch is three years and four months.<\/p>\n
Offenders become eligible for parole after an average of about 14 months, while more than a quarter receive home detention instead of a custodial sentence.<\/p>\n
The trust argued that those figures contrasted sharply with those in Australian jurisdictions that have introduced mandatory minimum penalties.<\/p>\n
In New South Wales and Victoria, average sentences for similar offences exceed nine years, with non-parole periods commonly above six years, the trust said.<\/p>\n