A Wellington man will be 70 before he can be released from jail after he was sentenced to life for murdering his on-again off-again partner.
Justice Simon France sentenced Hone John Haerewa, 53, to life with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years when he appeared in the High Court at Wellington today.
Haerewa bashed Allison McPhee, 42, to death with the leg of a wooden stool in her council bedsit in suburban Newtown last June 22.