The man who strangled Wellington bar worker and singer Helen Wickliffe has been jailed for six years.
In the High Court at Wellington yesterday, Justice Paul Neazor said he set the sentence at four years for the manslaughter, but added two years for the callous, degrading way Daniel Peter McLean, 27,
disposed of Ms Wickliffe's body.
McLean, a bar worker, pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
He had originally been charged with murdering Ms Wickliffe, 22, on April 17 last year, but the Crown accepted a guilty plea to the lesser charge.
McLean told police he had argued with Ms Wickliffe, with whom he had an on-off relationship, and she had attacked him. They fought, and he had held her down by the neck until she got weaker.
McLean said that when he realised Ms Wickliffe had stopped breathing he tried to resuscitate her.
Later he lied to a female friend about how Ms Wickliffe died. They took the body to Rimutaka Hill, where McLean pushed it into bush. The body was not found for about four weeks and was so badly decomposed the cause of death could not be fully investigated.
- NZPA
