Life term for brutal murder

Stephen Findlay was jailed for life. Photo / Matiu Workman

The day before Stephen Findlay beat his neighbour to death with a blunt object, he tried to speak to his daughter.

But Miranda Clare was too busy to answer the phone.

On March 7 last year - just hours later - the 60-year-old man murdered Sharon Diane Comerford in her Seacliff home before shooting himself in the face.

In the High Court at Dunedin yesterday he was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 11 years by Justice Rachel Dunningham.

"A life was taken and it was a brutal murder," she said.

Findlay's daughter Clare said she was haunted by the phone call she never answered.

But maybe a chat would have only delayed the tragedy, she said.

She knew her father was having problems with his neighbour, and the serenity he had sought when he moved to the coastal township from Oamaru six years earlier was a distant memory.

The pair - both alcoholics - argued incessantly after Findlay moved on to a house bus on the section next to Ms Comerford.

When she heard of a murder outside Dunedin, she knew he was involved. Findlay had been in regular contact with the police about the escalating feud with his neighbour.