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Archived Press Releases 2010 2nd July 2010

CROWN CONGRATULATED ON VERCOE APPEAL - WATCHDOG

(2nd July 2010)

The Sensible Sentencing Trust has congratulated the Solicitor-General on the decision to Appeal the sentence in the Hawea Vercoe case.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust joined forces with the Vercoe family in lobbying the Crown to appeal the two year ten month sentence imposed on Isaiah Tai for killing Bay of Plenty regional councillor Hawea Vercoe.

The Vercoe family has campaigned for an increase in prison time for Tai, who punched Mr Vercoe on the head and then kicked him in the head as he lay unconscious on The Strand in Whakatane in an incident in November.

Family spokeswoman Rihi Vercoe said a petition with 400 signatures calling for the sentence to be appealed had been delivered to the Crown Law Office.

Sensible Sentencing Trust Spokesman, Garth McVicar said the Trust had also written to the Solicitor-General urging the sentence to be appealed.

"Two years and ten months for hitting someone from behind and then kicking them in the head was a pathetic sentence, our fear was that this would lower the bar for similar cases in the future and we could not allow that to happen”.

“While there can be no “ordinary” range of sentence for this type of offence surely the circumstances and devastating outcome in this case were sufficiently serious to justify a much longer sentence”.

“A civilised society deserves to be protected from this type of behaviour and surely that duty must fall on the Court. In this instance the Court has failed”.

A Crown Law Office spokeswoman said an appeal against the sentence was lodged on Wednesday and would be likely to be heard within the next six months in the Court of Appeal

Full submission to Solicitor-General is here (Word document, will open in Word or Open Office or similar)

Regards,

Garth McVicar
National Spokesperson,
Sensible Sentencing Trust.