Man jailed for life for stabbing woman to death

Shane Millar has been jailed for life for the murder of 46-year-old sickness beneficiary Susan Ann Marriner. Photo / NZPA/David Rowland.

A man who stabbed a woman to death in west Auckland last year was jailed for life with a minimum non-parole period of 10 years this afternoon.

Shane Millar, 31, was sentenced in the High Court in Auckland after earlier admitting murdering 46-year-old sickness beneficiary Susan Ann Marriner.

Millar, who has Asperger's syndrome, and another man visited a house where Ms Marriner and one of her friends were socialising.

They brought alcohol with them, which the prosecution said greatly exacerbated his disorder.

Millar said something with which Ms Marriner disagreed and he got a knife from the kitchen.

When she confronted him about the knife the two got involved in a scuffle and he stabbed her once in the neck. She died before an ambulance arrived.

Justice Graham Lang told Millar: "You took her life gratuitously and in a situation where nothing whatsoever provoked the kind of response that you provided.

"Nothing at all could have justified violence, let alone violence of that level."

Cries of "hang yourself" erupted from the packed public gallery as Justice Lang passed sentence.

- NZPA