Coral's killer expected longer sentence

By BRIDGET CARTER

The man who killed Coral-Ellen Burrows expected to get a heftier prison term, says his mother.

Steven Williams was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve 15 years before being considered for parole.

Speaking to the Herald from her bed last night, Robyn Williams said she and her son thought he would get a tougher sentence for the murder of 6-year-old Coral.

The Wairarapa grandmother collapsed yesterday in a coffee bar while she was sitting down composing herself after what had been an exhausting day.

"It has been such a hype all these months, but now I just feel empty," she said.

Ms Williams said she had spoken to her son after the High Court sentencing in Wellington and he had broken down in tears - as she did when she got home after the ordeal.

"He is a bit bemused because it is all over," she said.

"We thought he would get a lot more."

The judge took into account Williams' early plea of guilty and his remorse at what he had done.

But Coral's father, Ron Burrows, was infuriated by the sentence, storming out of the court.

This week, Mr Burrows had travelled with family to Wellington from Matamata, hoping to see Williams, 29, from Featherston, jailed for at least 22 years.

In a white T-shirt with a picture of Coral and with the legend, "We love you Coral-Ellen", Mr Burrows sat quietly in court.

But after Williams was sentenced, he held his fist in the air, expressed his disgust with the justice system and marched through Wellington city streets boiling with anger.

"My daughter done nothing. She'll never have a 16th birthday or get married.

"Will I ever get to hold my grandchildren? Nah."

He did not believe Williams was remorseful, and recounted how he had searched for his daughter - "tears running down my eyes" - while Williams walked beside him.

"He's not remorseful, though. The only reason he's upset is that he's caught and he's got to stay in jail.

"I watched him on the monitor [at the sentencing]. Every time he had to be remorseful for the judge's benefit he was.

"You take the life of an innocent child, you deserve to rot in jail at the very least. You deserve to be put down like a mongrel dog."

Coral's mother, Jeanna Cremen, refused to comment about the sentencing.

But like Mr Burrows, Coral's uncle Karl Cremen was furious, saying "15 years just ain't long enough".

The sentence they felt so angry about was handed down by Justice John Wild.

He felt that a minimum 17-year term was not warranted for Williams because he had confessed early to the murder and his parole officer had said that in 26 years he had never seen a man with such expressions of remorse.

"I think the fear and disbelieving look that must have been in Coral's eyes as you punched and hit her, the little hand that came up to try and fend off the blows, will haunt you for the rest of your life," Justice Wild said.

Under the Sentencing Act, a minimum jail term of 17 years applies - unless the court is satisfied it would be manifestly unjust - in a number of circumstances, one being that the victim was particularly vulnerable by reason of age.

Williams cried in court as his lawyer, Val Nisbet, said his client had been on antidepressants, suicidal and had nightmares after he murdered the Wairarapa schoolgirl.

The thought of the blood on his hands after the fatal beating was a memory being repeated over and over again in his mind.

"Steve Williams believes he is the most hated man in New Zealand," Mr Nisbet said.

But Crown prosecutor Grant Burston said Williams brutally attacked Coral on September 9 in the car outside her school at a time when she was vulnerable and dependent on him as a stepfather.

He punched her twice in the face and caused her brain damage, spent an hour looking for a place to dump her, then struck her again with a piece of wood and left her for dead.

At the end of the sentencing, Justice Wild told Jeanna Cremen that she was in no way to blame for the death of her daughter.

Ms Cremen buried her face in her hands.

"There was nothing to warn you that anything like this might happen," Justice Wild said.

Then he gave a stern warning about pure methamphetamine, the drug that fuelled Williams' rage as he attacked Coral after she said she did not want to get out of the car and go to school.

Justice Wild said that although the drug was not taken into account for sentencing, it might have explained why things happened.

"If anything good comes out of this case, I hope it is a shocking warning to those manufacturing or using pure methamphetamine."

Robyn Williams had told the court that the attack happened only because her son had taken P.

Outside court, Ms Williams said she thought the justice system was fair and that she was sad that she would not see her son outside prison again.

After a 10-day hunt, Coral's body was found and Williams was charged with murder. He pleaded guilty and was convicted last December in Masterton District Court of her murder.

Outside the court yesterday, the man who headed the Coral inquiry, Detective Inspector Rod Drew, said the sentencing brought a sense of closure for everyone.

"We are still without Coral ... but the appropriate sentence has been handed down. That's life imprisonment."

Howard League for Penal Reform co-president Peter Eastwood said passions ran high immediately after sentencing but the case should be kept in perspective.

"While you can understand the public feeling about this terrible murder, the reality is one day he's going to be released, and too often people come out of prison institutionalised without any resources and ill-equipped to cope with society, and they are just reoffending, causing the public further distress."

National Party law and order spokesman Tony Ryall joined the chorus of dismay at the 15-year non-parole sentence.

"Fifteen years is a manifestly inadequate sentence for the ghastly murder of a helpless child by a man with 88 previous convictions."

Longest sentences

Minimum non-parole periods for other murderers.

* Triple RSA murderer William Bell: 33 years.

* Bruce Thomas Howse, who killed his stepdaughters Saliel Aplin and Olympia Jetson: 28 years.

* Mark Lundy, who killed his wife Christine and daughter Amber: 20 years.

* Scott Watson, who killed Olivia Hope and Ben Smart in the Marlborough Sounds: 17 years.