Jayden Kahi jailed for two years for killing Indian tourist Mewa Singh

Sixty-year-old Mewa Singh, a visitor from India, died two days after he was attacked by a stranger outside Linwood Park in April 2023. Photo / George Heard

By Anna Sargent of RNZ

A man who killed a tourist who he mistakenly thought was trying to abduct his son near a Christchurch park has been jailed for two years.

Mewa Singh, 60, a visitor from India, died two days after he was attacked by a stranger outside Linwood Park in April 2023.

Jayden Kahi pleaded guilty to Singh’s manslaughter and was sentenced in front of a packed public gallery in the High Court at Christchurch this morning.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Singh’s son said he was still struggling with the loss of his father.

“The defendant has turned our lives upside down. Wherever we go and whatever we do, we will always miss our dad,” he said.

There were shouts of “love you” from the public gallery as Kahi was taken away after being sentenced.

The summary of facts said Singh had been in New Zealand only four months before his death.

It said in April 2023, Kahi left his 7-year-old son alone at Linwood park to teach him a lesson after he had refused to go home with him.

When Kahi returned, he saw an unknown man, later identified as Singh, holding his son’s hand near a bus stop and became “enraged”.

Kahi yelled out “that’s my f***ing son”, told the man to get his hands off his son and shoved the man, the summary said.

The summary said Kahi then drove his son back to his ex-partner’s house, where his son told him that the man was “trying to walk him to daddy’s car”.

Kahi went back to Linwood Park and confronted Singh, accusing him of trying to abduct his son.

He shoved Singh and delivered a “haymaker-style punch” to his jaw, and Singh fell and hit his head on the pavement.

The summary said Singh suffered a skull fracture and internal bleeding and died at Christchurch Hospital two days later.

At Kahi’s sentencing, Crown prosecutor Christina Hallaway said Kahi’s offending had caused Singh’s family “never-ending harm”, and that they would continue to grieve for the rest of their lives.

“The victim had done nothing to provoke the confrontation. There is nothing to suggest the victim did anything but try to help the defendant’s son,” she said.

Kahi’s lawyer, Anselm Williams, said his client had a great deal of remorse.

“He’s accepted his actions have caused the death of an individual,” he said.

Williams said it was not a premeditated attack and Kahi acted impulsively.

Kahi had been on electronic bail for about 16 months and during that time had engaged with his mental health treatment and a violence prevention programme, Williams said.

Justice Melanie Harland told Kahi there was no doubt that he was the aggressor in this situation.

“There is nothing at all to suggest he [Singh] did anything to his son apart from showing him kindness. The person was just trying to help a little boy, your son, who had been left at the park by you,” she said.

“Your actions reveal a man who that day was quick to anger.”

However, she accepted that Kahi had been “upfront” with the police and others about what he had done.

Justice Harland sentenced Kahi to two years’ imprisonment.

- RNZ

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