Cat statue killer jailed at least 13 yrs

A man who dropped a 15.75kg ornamental cat statue three times on to the head of his mother's sleeping boarder was today sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years.

Sean Dennis Brown, 27, a painter and decorator, was earlier found guilty by a jury in March of killing 38-year-old Harold Skudder near Wellington on January 24, 2007.

He was sentenced by Justice Ronald Young in the High Court at Wellington this morning.

Mr Skudder went to sleep on the lounge floor on the night of the 24th after the beer he had bought to celebrate Brown's 23rd birthday had been drunk.

By the next morning he had disappeared from the two-bedroom Stokes Valley unit. His mother in Te Puke eventually filed a missing person report when she was unable to track down Mr Skudder, who was separated from his partner and four children.

In March last year, the cold case finally warmed up after police received new information and arrested Brown.

He led them to a bush area at Upper Hutt, where Mr Skudder's skeletal remains were found wrapped in bedding down a steep bank.

- NZPA