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Offender Databases Eric Smail

Eric Neil Smail

Alias

.

Offences

Murder by stabbing of Christchurch former paralympian Keith McCormick in July 2005

Victims

Keith McCormick

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1958

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to life with a 14 year minimum term in August 2010
Later reduced to a 13 year minimum term on appeal
Eligible for parole July 2024

Background
NZ Herald story here with the original increased sentence detailed here
Appeal case is detailed here
From Christchurch Press story March 2006
A Sumner man who slit the throat of his tetraplegic flatmate made a surprise guilty plea yesterday in the Christchurch District Court, to the relief of the dead man's friends and family. Eric Neil Smail, 48, made a brief appearance in the dock to admit murdering former Paralympic athlete Keith McCormick on July 28 last year. McCormick, 56, was only able to move his head from side to side and was dependent on 24-hour nursing care, including from Smail, a friend of 20 years. In the hours before McCormick's death, Smail told colleagues he was going to slit McCormick's throat and, after stabbing him six times in the neck as he sat defenceless in his wheelchair, he telephoned a series of friends, saying he had killed him.

Nobody believed him until Smail called his sister, who went to the Sumner home the men shared and found McCormick dead from a throat wound 205mm long and 125mm deep. Last December, Smail was committed to stand trial on a murder charge by two justices of the peace. He was due to stand trial later this year, but yesterday his lawyer, Tim Fournier, told the court his client was pleading guilty. Smail will be sentenced in the High Court in Christchurch on May 5. Ken Thickett, McCormick's friend and the greenkeeper at the Sumner Bowling Club, which McCormick regularly visited, said he and other club members were relieved Smail had admitted the murder and saved McCormick's family the ordeal of a trial.

"We are extremely pleased for (McCormick's) mum and his family and all his friends," Thickett said. "The whole bowling club is elated because it takes the stress out of going through a court case." Club members had no sympathy for Smail. "How can you have any sympathy for a man who would do that to a guy in a wheelchair?" Thickett said. Carer Kathleen McQuilty saw McCormick shortly before he died. She could never have imagined Smail would kill her friend. "I saw them laughing together, joking," she said. McQuilty said she was in some ways sad Smail had pleaded guilty because she wanted to hear why he had murdered her friend, whom she described as a "happy, outgoing, amazing man".

Smail's guilty plea once again puts the spotlight on the pressures faced by carers. A Christchurch tetraplegic and friend of McCormick's, who did not want to be named, said he relied totally on his four carers. "I can't function without a carer," he said. "I can't get out of bed without a carer. I can't do my ablutions or shower. "Dealing one on one with people day in, day out is quite stressful, and any issue you might have or a carer might have outside can influence matters, but we try to keep communication open so we discuss all that sort of stuff. "In Keith's case, it was a bit messy. That obviously was an extreme case of everything going pear-shaped and, of course, it should have never got to that."

Christchurch caregiver Toni Adams said the biggest challenge in caring for tetraplegics was their dependence on the carer. "When you start working with someone with tetraplegia, you become very involved in their life, and it's not just a job you're doing for money because you realise their dependence on you and you share things you wouldn't ordinarily share. There's a lot of trust with that," Adams said. "This person needs you there 100 per cent. This person needs you to get them food, to get them out of bed. You can't call in sick."

She said the only support she got as a private carer was from the person she cared for. During depositions last year, prosecutor Andrew McRae told the court that McCormick had been a paraplegic until another accident left him a tetraplegic, with no feeling below his neck, unable to move any of his limbs and dependent on 24-hour supervision from a team of caregivers. In November 2004, Smail had become McCormick's caregiver, providing evening care on Mondays and Thursdays. This had necessitated him living with McCormick.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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