\u201cThe result in this case, it is submitted, is that the young man has been subjected to a considerably harsher penalty than would have been imposed under the OTA, by virtue only of the timing of the complaint and charge,\u201d the Supreme Court\u2019s decision said. <\/p>\n
The court found that although he was now an adult, his sentencing should have \u201cdrawn on the Oranga Tamariki Act youth justice principles because he was 15 when he committed the lead offence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Today, the court issued a ruling in cases involving two other young men, F v King and N v King, after April hearings for them both. <\/p>\n
In both cases, each was found guilty of rape, which they committed when they were about 15 or 16 years old. <\/p>\n
One was jailed for five years and seven months, while the other was jailed for four years and one month, which was reduced to three years and six months on appeal. <\/p>\n
At sentencing, each received discounts for their youth. <\/p>\n
At April\u2019s hearing before five justices of the Supreme Court, lawyers for both men who brought the sentencing appeal argued that, in light of the G v King decision, the cases should be sent back to the District Court for resentencing. <\/p>\n
The Supreme Court issued its findings in the appeal cases today. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Both submitted their clients would likely have received lighter sentences if the principles of the earlier case had also been applied to theirs.<\/p>\n
The Crown agreed with the appellants that the cases should be remitted back to the District Court for resentencing.<\/p>\n
In upholding its earlier decision of G v King and that the principles of youth justice should be considered in aged-out offenders cases, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal and ordered the proceedings be sent back for resentencing in the District Court.<\/p>\n
\u2018How is this fair?\u2019 <\/p>\n
The father of one of the victims said today\u2019s decision from the Supreme Court was \u201cfrustrating\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was frustrating not only for his daughter, but the whole family, who have been dragged through the courts over the past six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gut-wrenching that we have to go through all this process again,\u201d he told NZME.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done the crime. We\u2019re the victims, and it\u2019s never-ending for us. Even when he was in jail, we thought, great, he can\u2019t do anything now.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext thing, he\u2019s appealed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, he appealed again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no peace in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his daughter\u2019s mental health was now \u201cin the gutter\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s suffered traumatically. She can\u2019t work; she\u2019s getting therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just ruined our family, and ruined [victim\u2019s] life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The father said the young man had never apologised or taken any accountability for what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to move house, up sticks and move somewhere else.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, how is this fair?\u201d<\/p>\n
Court rejects request to clarify earlier decision<\/p>\n
The Crown also argued that further general guidance on sentencing methodology was required to clarify the court\u2019s earlier decision for future cases in relation to G v King and the Sentencing Act. <\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court rejected that, saying supplementary guidance wasn\u2019t necessary. <\/p>\n
Instead, today\u2019s outcome summarised the new approach for sentencing aged-out offenders, as set out in G v King. <\/p>\n
This included the likely outcome under the OTA, which must be considered as part of the normal sentencing methodology. <\/p>\n
If a community-based response would have been reasonably likely under the OTA, then the court must apply a consistent outcome. <\/p>\n
And if a community-based sentence was still appropriate for the now adult offender, an appropriate sentence must be arrived at that reflects relevant sentencing purposes, principles and factors.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court also noted the earlier decision was not a guideline judgment and \u201cmust be applied on its terms for future cases, and in any case where an applicant is able to persuade the court to reopen the sentencing outcome\u201d. <\/p>\n
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It noted this was a significant change for a narrow group of offenders. In that case, the man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27709,82578,1763,806,13239,1349,868,8912,42,6148,43,15222,28703,104284,6289,17703,3271,544,106382,30246,1961,61,40,38,41,39,13017,1455,102,1079],"class_list":["post-471935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adults","tag-apply","tag-article","tag-as","tag-charged","tag-court","tag-deals","tag-distressing","tag-headlines","tag-justice","tag-news","tag-offenders","tag-offending","tag-principles","tag-readers","tag-sexual","tag-should","tag-some","tag-subject","tag-supreme","tag-this","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-upholds","tag-warning","tag-with","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}