Tensions erupted in court today as a fractured whānau voiced different views on what should happen to a young man who killed his teenage cousin while driving drunk.
Grieving father Tom Shortcliffe told a judge he didn’t want his nephew jailed, saying, as a man who had done time himself, it wasn’t a path towards rehabilitation.
His 16-year-old daughter, Ani-Kurangi Taueki-Lanig-Paretene-Rapana-Shortcliffe, died in May 2025 after jumping into a moving car to try to stop her cousin from drink-driving.
Shortcliffe said his nephew, Pace Kukutai-Tumata, was a victim of circumstance, including a culture of binge drinking.
“He’s a product of us ... our culture. The culture, whānau, the culture needs to change and if you want to help that boy, then yous need to change.”
But, his stance appeared to differ from that of his wife, Faith Rapana, who said she wanted “justice” for their daughter who died in hospital after the car Kukutai-Tumata was driving crashed.
Today, the now 21-year-old appeared in the Manukau District Court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to drunk driving causing death, drunk driving causing injuryand dangerous driving.
When Judge Richard McIlraith indicated Kukutai-Tumata would receive a sentence of home detention, some whānau stormed out in protest, yelling profanity at the court and defendant.
Rapana followed suit, saying: “F*** yous. Get f*****”.
Ani-Kurangi’s father stayed, telling the judge his whānau’s disagreement on what sentence his nephew should receive had created a division between them.
“This is costing me my family, not just my baby.”
According to court documents, Kukutai-Tumata was at a tangi unveiling in Port Waikato on May 30, 2025, when he was involved in an “altercation”.
Despite being on his learner’s licence, the then 20-year-old ran to his car and tried to drive away.
He later told police he had drunk “three or four big bottles of beer” before getting behind the wheel. He was nearly twice the legal limit, with a blood test later revealing a result of 137mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Ani-Kurangi, who was known as Ani, and another passenger entered the car as it was moving, trying to get him to stop but he instead sped up.
Kukutai-Tumata was estimated to be travelling at 120km/h down Tuakau Bridge-Port Waikato Rd before crossing the centre line, forcing other motorists to take evasive action.
He eventually lost control of the car and crashed. Ani and the other passenger were partially ejected from the car and crushed.
The other passenger had “serious injuries to their left side”, and Ani was left fighting for her life. She later died in hospital.
Kukutai-Tumata later told police he drove away in anger.
Ani’s mother told the court she was with family in Whangārei when she got a call that “shattered her world” saying her daughter had been in a car accident.
After rushing to Starship Hospital in Auckland she saw her daughter covered in wires and tubes, her body bruised and swollen.
“Seeing Ani lying there broken broke me completely,” she described. “I collapsed in fear, disbelief and heartbreak.”
She described Ani as a future change-maker, deeply respected at her marae and a leader among her peers.
“[She was] celebrated for her vibrant spirit and gift and bringing whānau together.”
Her immediate family’s relationships had become fractured in trying to cope with their grief and had caused great division with her nephew’s side of the family, too.
“I understand that this is my nephew, and I do love him with all my heart, but it’s hard,” she explained.
“It is,” Judge McIlraith responded.
“... that’s what caused the void in our whānau,” she continued.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald, Rapana said she wanted to challenge the normalisation of drink-driving in rural communities, where people still treated driving home from the pub after a few beers as acceptable.
“Young people copied what they saw from their parents. It was so common.
“No one was learning from the mistakes.”
Ani’s sister also shared an impact statement, which said she did not believe Kukutai-Tumata “deserved freedom”.
“What startles me is that this man has shown no remorse for what he has done.”
In his statement, Ani’s dad addressed Kukutai-Tumata’s elders and their culture of binge drinking that he believed cost his daughter her life.
He recalled the day of the accident when they received the call “that no parent would ever want to receive”.
In a video call from a family member at the crash site, he asked to see his daughter.
“I asked her to take me to Ani, and she said, ‘Do you really wanna do that?’”
“All I could see was my baby lying on the roadside under a white blanket.”
Despite his grief, Shortcliffe told his nephew he loved and felt sorry for him, expressing sympathy for the “long road” ahead.
He said Kukutai-Tumata was a product of his circumstances and the whānau’s culture needed to change.
He was scared to send his daughter to her aunt’s and uncle’s house, he said, worried about the impact being around the culture would have on her.
“The culture, whānau … I was scared of it."
He argued against Kukutai-Tumata receiving prison time, sharing that his own experience in the system made him know it was not a path towards rehabilitation.
“You are a young man, Pace. I have been in and out of jail, I don’t believe in that.”
The decision to argue against prison time had created deep division with his wife and whānau, he said.
He worried about the future of his nuclear and extended family, and the continued fractures his daughter’s death and today’s sentence would cause.
Prosecutor Sylvie Arnerich noted that Ani’s family did not think the defendant had shown “genuine” remorse.
She also pointed out that Kukutai-Tumata had only been to four online Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since the offending.
Defence lawyer Miriam Jenkins countered that her client had difficulty processing the accident and had been on a 24-hour curfew since being charged. The curfew was not the “ideal situation” for intensive rehabilitation.
Arnerich said from the psychological and alcohol and drug reports before the court, it was clear there was a binge drinking culture in Kukutai-Tumata’s background.
During sentencing, Judge McIlraith said he respected the family’s scepticism of the defendant’s remorse.
However, he said the 21-year-old’s brain was not fully developed, causing the young man to have difficulty expressing himself.
“I see a lot of people who may not in the face of it appear as remorseful as one might expect,” the judge said.
But “underneath it all” there was genuine remorse.
“He is going to live with this for the rest of his life and he will be bearing the cost of this forever.”
After discounts for his early guilty plea, youth, remorse and willingness to undergo rehabilitation, Kukutai-Tumata was sentenced to nine months’ home detention.
He was disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay for the retaining wall and fence damaged in the crash and $974.26 in medical fees.
An emotional harm reparation was not accepted by the family.
Kukutai-Tumata was charged in October and pleaded guilty the following month.
He fought for suppression, arguing that naming him would cause extreme hardship and endanger his safety, citing social media posts calling for vigilante justice.
However, he lost his appeal in the High Court last week.
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