Mother thrilled at lift in sentence

The devoted mother of a tetraplegic murdered by his friend and carer is "over the moon" that the killer's minimum jail sentence has almost doubled.

Dorothy McCormick was outraged in May when Eric Neil Smail was sentenced in the High Court to 12 years' jail, with a minimum non-parole period of seven years, for slitting the throat of her wheelchair-bound son, Keith McCormick, 56, a former Paralympian.

Yesterday Mrs McCormick, 80, was phoned by police at her Christchurch home to tell her that the Court of Appeal had increased Smail's sentence to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years.

"I couldn't be more relieved," she told the Weekend Herald.

"I have been ringing the world. We are all so thrilled.

"It has put Keith at a higher level somehow.

"He was not just an old cripple who didn't deserve to live."

The Crown appealed against the sentence imposed in May by Justice John Fogarty in the High Court at Christchurch after Smail pleaded guilty to the murder.

Justice Fogarty concluded at the hearing that although he did not see it as a mercy killing, it would be manifestly unjust to impose a life term and a minimum 17-year term which crown prosecutor Phil Shamy sought.

The crown said at the sentencing there was a high level of brutality involved in the killing and Smail had repeatedly stabbed Mr McCormick in the only place where he could still feel pain - his neck.

In its decision, the Court of Appeal noted the two men had known each other for about 20 years and were close friends.

Mr McCormick was a paraplegic because of a diving accident in 1971. After falling from his wheelchair he became a tetraplegic in 2000 and Smail was one of his regular carers.

The Appeal Court stated: "While Justice Fogarty found that Mr Smail was suffering from accumulated stress, he did not make any finding that Mr Smail had been exposed to prolonged and unsupportable stress."

The court said the murder of Mr McCormick could not be regarded as a mercy killing.

It found that the legislation provided for a minimum non-parole term of 17 years in such cases, but after considering factors relating to this case, and the terms imposed in other cases, it set the period at 13 years.