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Home / New Zealand

Tagger's mum: 'Sorry is not going to bring back my son'

Herald online
13 Feb, 2009 12:19 AM4 mins to read

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Bruce Emery, tagger Pihema Cameron and lawyer Chris Comesky.

Bruce Emery, tagger Pihema Cameron and lawyer Chris Comesky.

KEY POINTS:

The mother of a boy stabbed after tagging a garage said the man found guilty of his manslaughter appeared "painless" in court this morning.

Wearing a t-shirt that said "in loving memory of Pihema Cameron", Leanne Cameron told the media that Emery had shown no remorse.

"Did any of you fullas see his face? It's painless. He's got no emotions at all.

"He looked at us and put his face down. What's that? Can't you face us?"

She said she wanted no contact with the Emery family.

"Sorry is not going to bring back my son," Mrs Cameron said.

She said her family was "boiling" and the pain does not stop.

Bruce Emery was sentenced to four years and three months in jail for the manslaughter of 15-year-old Pihema Cameron.

Emery chased and stabbed Pihema Cameron after he caught him tagging his home in Manurewa in January last year.

Pihema died within minutes of being stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife Emery had taken from his home.

Emery's lawyer Chris Comeskey said at the time of his conviction, in December last year, that he would seek to keep Emery out of jail.

Emery has been held in custody for the past two months leading up to today's sentencing.

Mr Comeskey applied for home detention but this was denied by Judge Hugh Williams who said: "Home detention is not the equivalent of prison."

The starting point for sentencing in a case where one person stabs another was five to seven years imprisonment, but with mitigating factors it can be reduced to three-and-a-half to four years.

Justice Williams added he was unable to find a case of this nature.

He said the fact that a knife was used was serious. People did not realise that a blade the width of a credit card could kill someone.

But there were mitigating factors, including Emery's "family standing" and that he supported himself in the community.

He said letters written to the court, the public's opinion - both for and against tagging - and media coverage were not taken into account during Emery's sentencing.

Justice Williams said that in a pre-sentencing statement that Mr Emery felt "very angry" but "Mr Cameron's death goes against what you were brought up with and what you believe".

Today, Emery's wife was sitting in the front row of the High Court in Auckland with a small contingent of friends and family.

Mrs Cameron was also in the courtroom with a number of supporters, many of whom were wearing T-shirts with a photo of the victim and the words "in loving memory".

She said in a victim impact statement she read out in court that she was working in Perth at the time to support her family.

"Not a day goes by when I don't cry about my son," she said.

"This man who killed my son had 300m to stop and think about what could have been," Mrs Cameron said.

"I've never felt so much hatred for a person to what I feel towards this man.

"He destroyed and broke up my family over a bit of paint."

She said she was serving "a life sentence" with the loss of her son.

Godmother and aunt of Mr Cameron, Francine Harrison, described the night she was told that Mr Cameron had died.

"Everyone in my home was screaming, wailing and absolutely hysterical," Ms Harrison said.

She said she wanted to take the place of her nephew and couldn't be with him after he had died.

"We had to watch him being wheeled out on television," she said.

Dean Harrison, 16, told the court he was at the "lowest point I could go."

"He meant the world to me, we were known as the musketeers of the family," Mr Harrison said.

Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins summed the case up.

"The simple fact is that the prisoner stabbed a 15-year-old boy in response to the tagging of his garage."

Mr Perkins said a term of imprisonment was "undoubtedly required."

Mr Comeskey said there was no doubt that the killing was a tragedy but said his client was remorseful.

He said there was a lot of extremely negative "ill-feeling in court" after the victim impact statements were read out.

He said the case had polarised public opinion and his client had received sympathy from some of the public.

He said Emery was confronted by two people wearing hoodies and that was the reason he "unwisely" picked up a knife.

He said at the end of the chase punches were thrown, but was corrected by Justice Williams who said there was no such evidence.

Mr Comeskey said his client had three young children and was an upstanding member of the public who had no prior criminal record.

Discover more

Opinion

Is Bruce Emery's sentence fair?

12 Feb 10:10 PM
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