Barry Soper on son's stabbing: Justice rarely goes the way you expect it to

Henry Soper, son of Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper. Photo / Supplied

COMMENT:

"I am writing this letter to tell you that I am very sorry for all the pain, trauma and agony you have suffered as a result of the injuries. I know there is nothing I could ever do or say that could change the events of that night."

They're just some of the words written on the day of his sentence by Jon Edwards to my son Henry, who he stabbed in Wellington's Courtney Place a year and a day ago.

At a pre-sentence hearing, Judge Peter Hobbs asked 38-year-old Edwards: "What the hell were you doing carrying a 30cm serrated knife in Courtney Place?"

There had been an incident the week before with another man who had a gun, Edwards told the judge, so he was carrying it for protection. It was a spur of the moment thing that he said he couldn't justify.

Being more than an observer of justice was an interesting exercise. A charge of wounding with intent to injure carries a maximum sentence of seven years inside. So the expectation was for incarceration, but justice rarely goes the way you expect it to.

Edwards was sentenced to four months home detention. Outrageous, would be the expected response to that.

But this is how justice works.

Judge Hobbs said his starting point was a prison sentence of two years and nine months in jail. For the past four months Edwards has been on electronically monitored bail. For that, he gets a prison credit of a month.

He's paid $3000 for reparation - a two-month prison credit (that grates: justice should not be for sale).

He pleaded guilty, saving the state the cost of a trial - a six-month credit (surely he had no choice, the attack was caught on CCTV).

That brings the sentence down to two years, which gives the judge the option of home detention.

He spent the first eight months after the stabbing in jail on remand, which would effectively be 16 months, given the time he'd be expected to serve if he actually went down for two years.

So that leaves four months, which he'll now spend at the home of a family member. There are strict conditions once he's released and he'll do 200 hours community work.

Justice?

If you're after vengeance, no.

But surely we all have to be bigger than that. We've been assured Edwards has turned his life around and if that's truly the case then justice will have been served.

"This letter is an apology to you as well as a sorry to your family as they have also suffered," Edwards wrote.

Thank God that Henry's around to receive it.