the jury\u2019s verdict reflects<\/a> they found his riding deviated so far from the standard expected of a reasonable motorcycle rider, such a \u201cmajor departure\u201d, that it amounted to manslaughter.<\/p>\nAt one point before the collision, estimates had him riding about 60km\/h above the 50km\/h speed limit as he approached the Bethlehem roundabout.<\/p>\n
At the point he hit the Bouchers, his estimated speed was 72.8km\/h, just over 20km\/h above the posted speed limit.<\/p>\n
![\"Geoffrey]()
Geoffrey and Karen Boucher were using the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights near the Bethlehem shops. Photo \/ Mead Norton<\/p>\n
Kimber\u2019s riding that night seemed to reflect the kind of lawlessness he\u2019s adopted throughout his adult life, a way of operating outside the norms of law-abiding New Zealanders. A decision to ignore the lawful speed and ride as he chose.<\/p>\n
His previous violence seems to have been his way of dealing with disputes, of seeking retribution within his gang context, or taking out his frustrations on his partner.<\/p>\n
Court documents said, in early 2018, he \u201cwhacked (his partner) across the back of her head with his knuckles\u201d because she was \u201cstressing him out\u201d.<\/p>\n
A couple of months later, he saw her using her phone, and punched her in the eye after thinking she was messaging another man. <\/p>\n
In 2003, in a dispute over money owed, he smashed a man around the head, shoulder, hand, chest and leg with a baseball bat.<\/p>\n
Stopping short of justifying his actions as warranted, he accepts that he actively chose to behave unlawfully and violently in those cases.<\/p>\n
But on July 22, 2022, his lawlessness hit the lives of those outside his world in a way he says he never intended.<\/p>\n
A bigger picture he \u2018never used to see\u2019<\/p>\n
Kimber says the Bouchers\u2019 deaths \u201caltered his thoughts on a lot of things\u201d, particularly his understanding of the pain and suffering he\u2019s caused.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the bigger picture, not just the victims, but the bigger picture of their brothers, their sisters, their family, their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the picture that I never used to see. I used to see what was just in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the trial, Kimber was confronted by the CCTV footage that shows him speeding through the roundabout and hitting the Bouchers. <\/p>\n
Karen\u2019s body is seen flying through the air on impact.<\/p>\n
The footage was played many times during the trial, though not always in its entirety. With every play, a heaviness descended on the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Kimber says he tried not to look at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just ruins you, you know… because everyone\u2019s seen a nice couple walking down the road, you know, and [they\u2019re now] no more… It\u2019s one of those things that\u2019s never going to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Mark]()
Mark Kimber, pictured at the start of his trial in the High Court at Rotorua.<\/p>\n
After the collision, Kimber says he self-referred to the Grace Foundation in Auckland after his methamphetamine use increased.<\/p>\n
He says because he wanted to be there, he got a lot out of it.<\/p>\n
A knee operation brought him back to Tauranga, and after recovering, he went to an addiction support programme run by Paul Stanyer, through Curate Church.<\/p>\n
Stanyer has since started a new faith-based programme in Te Puke called Shelter Recovery.<\/p>\n
Stanyer referred Kimber to further support groups at Tauranga\u2019s Historic Village, where Kimber joined a men\u2019s group, and ended up doing an intentional peer support programme, which helps with mental health and suicide. <\/p>\n
Kimber reckons all this has made him realise he\u2019s \u201creasonably good at getting alongside people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of life experience and a lot of things that a lot of other people would only read about, and [have] never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also did a first aid course, after his attempt to perform CPR on Karen continued to weigh on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept wondering… did I do it too hard or, you know, or just too soft or wrong place?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the trial, there was clear evidence that Karen\u2019s injuries were unsurvivable.<\/p>\n
Kimber says he hopes once out of prison, he can help others.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear what his involvement with the Filthy Few will look like, though.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s previously told the court and Parole Board he\u2019s \u201cdistanced himself\u201d from the gang, but accepts he\u2019s a \u201clife member\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that being gang members is pretty negative in the community, but I look at things slightly different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look that I can be trusted by other gang members, and if through… my experiences, I can help somebody else move away from violence or drugs or whatever… it\u2019s a better community for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says: \u201cAt the end of the day, I don\u2019t want Geoffrey and Karen\u2019s death to not mean anything, you know?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kimber\u2019s childhood was marked by neglect. He was sent to live on a remote farm with his father, whom he describes as a \u201chard man\u201d.<\/p>\n
He says he would be left for months on end, while his dad worked on farms in the lower North Island.<\/p>\n
Kimber was about 11, and would return from school to find grown men, who knew his dad, but whom Kimber didn\u2019t know, staying in the house. <\/p>\n
He remembers getting hungry, especially in winter, and was told he could help himself to a meat freezer at a nearby farm.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t realise he was actually eating possum meat meant for the dogs. He thought it was rabbit. <\/p>\n
Emerging from childhood, Kimber quickly took up with the Filthy Few, in large part due to his love of motorbikes and desire to build a Harley Davidson.<\/p>\n
When asked about his background, his violence, and his drug use, he says that\u2019s his history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can learn from it, but we don\u2019t want to make it our future, eh… All I can do is do my best to change the way I\u2019ve done things, the way I\u2019ve thought.\u201d <\/p>\n
Boucher family asks: \u2018Why does he get out and have a life?\u2019 <\/p>\n
While the judge, and others connected to Kimber\u2019s case, may take Kimber at his word, others remain unconvinced, particularly the Boucher family.<\/p>\n
Louise Lentle has worked in UK courts and said she was \u201cflabbergasted\u201d by the sentence handed down; she expected a sentence in the realm of 20 years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also know how expensive court cases are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like it\u2019s been a massive waste of money. If he wasn\u2019t going to get a decent sentence, then what was the point in going through all of this?\u201d<\/p>\n
The trial had been hard to watch, particularly when the CCTV footage was played.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to see it unexpectedly shocked us all and made us all feel sick,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see my aunt be thrown in the air like a ragdoll, I hope he never gets a good night\u2019s sleep. I hope the last thing he sees when he goes to sleep every night, and the first thing he sees when he wakes up, is my aunt dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Karen]()
Karen and Geoffrey Boucher. <\/p>\n
In terms of the sentencing process, she and Janet both say they didn\u2019t feel as though the impact of the deaths on the family had been given enough weight.<\/p>\n
They hadn\u2019t told Karen\u2019s mother, who is in her 90s, that the trial was under way, because they didn\u2019t think she would cope.<\/p>\n
They hoped that when they could tell her the final outcome, it would come as some comfort.<\/p>\n
But after sentencing, they said it had the opposite effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt broke her heart all over again because it felt like her daughter\u2019s life meant nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the centre of their frustration is that when Kimber gets out of prison, despite being disqualified from driving for a period, eventually he will get back to a normal life, rehabilitated or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he should die in prison,\u201d says Janet. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does he get out and have a life? My sister and brother-in-law have not got a life anymore. They don\u2019t get to see their children married, their grandchildren. He\u2019s robbed them of all that. So why does he get a life?\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she felt the loss of Karen acutely when she achieved a life-long dream of visiting Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got there when I turned 60, which was two years ago, and the first person I wanted to tell was my sister, and she wasn\u2019t there,\u201d she says, as she begins to weep.<\/p>\n
Louise reflects that her Uncle Geoff was the \u201cfun uncle\u201d, always picking her up by her ankles as a child. <\/p>\n
She said it\u2019s bittersweet that her own young boys got to experience the \u201cfun Uncle Geoff\u201d, just months before he passed, during the couple\u2019s visit to the UK.<\/p>\n
When told of the comments Kimber has made about his recurring memories of the moment Karen passed, both women say, \u201cgood\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can understand where he is saying that killing my aunt and uncle changed his mindset because… he did not go out that night and go, \u2018I\u2019m going to kill two innocent people\u2019,\u201d Louise said.<\/p>\n
However, he also didn\u2019t make a choice not to kill anyone, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I go out and drive my car, I\u2019m making sure that I drive in a safe manner so I don\u2019t cause anybody else any hurt, or injury, or kill anybody.\u201d <\/p>\n
She believes his remorse has been calculated, and nothing he says is genuine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s actually probably quite a clever man, and has managed to manipulate everybody to think that he is this poor lost soul,\u201d she said, adding that nothing she heard him say in court rang true.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all a ruse so that people would feel sorry for him, so he could try and get a lower sentence, which worked, evidently.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he\u2019d been genuine, she believes he wouldn\u2019t have been caught speeding again, and wouldn\u2019t have taken so long to do the first aid course.<\/p>\n
They found it \u201cinsulting\u201d that Kimber had made an offer of $10,000 emotional harm reparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t even [enough for] a funeral,\u201d Louise said. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, he put a monetary value on my aunt and uncle\u2019s life, and that\u2019s all he thought they were worth. Like a proper slap in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018My actions have taken their loved ones\u2019<\/p>\n
Kimber acknowledges why the family might be reluctant to hear from him and accept his remorse.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy actions have taken their loved ones, you know,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell them how to think or even try to, you know. I\u2019ve had enough losses in my life to understand what loss is.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he truly has a new outlook, Kimber returns to the same reflection he began with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had it from the moment Karen went, you know. To have something outside your control.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then acknowledges it was indeed his deliberate decision to speed that caused the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I need a reminder of what my stupidity can cause, all I\u2019ve got to do is close my eyes, and there she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lights were red, and Karen and her husband Geoffrey were making their way over the crossing, walking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9750,153,155,154,10457,347,10459,10456,10458,2340,10452,10455,10454,10451,10450,10453,10460,1368],"class_list":{"0":"post-13825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-bethlehem","10":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","11":"tag-bethlehem-news","12":"tag-boucher","13":"tag-crash","14":"tag-genuinely","15":"tag-geoffrey","16":"tag-im","17":"tag-interview","18":"tag-jailhouse","19":"tag-karen","20":"tag-killed","21":"tag-kimbers","22":"tag-mark","23":"tag-on","24":"tag-sorry","25":"tag-that"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}