NZ Herald editorial: Minimum 17-year jail sentence for jilted killer sends violent men a message

The sentence of a minimum 17 years imprisonment imposed on Invercargill policeman Ben McLean yesterday for the murder of his wife shortly after she had left him for another man, is welcome for the message it sends to anyone who thinks murder in these circumstances is somehow less serious.

When the crime happened on Anzac Day, the town was reported to be in shock, especially McLean's police colleagues. He and his wife were both well known and liked. He was described as a good father to their three children.

His wife had left him to live with a man who had been his friend. The High Court heard how he premeditated the killing, taking a gun to the flat they shared, shooting her in her new partner's absence and then waiting for him to return. But for the other man's strength it would have been a double murder.

It is only of those crimes that can too easily invoke sympathy for both sides. It is the classic "crime of passion", perhaps the oldest plot in fiction, but there is no excuse for a crime such as this in real life.

Numerous families are ruptured every year unfortunately, by a parent forming a new relationship. Many a deserted partner probably has murderous wishes at the worst moments but they do not do what McLean did. At his sentencing yesterday he described his late wife as "the love of my life who broke my heart and soul, and I will live with regret and the torment of having been involved in her death for the rest of my life."

That was a statement of sympathy for himself, not her, as well as for their children, "the real victims of this death". No wonder Justice Rachel Dunningham sentenced him to the full term sought by the prosecution, life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Men like McLean are slow to realise, if they ever do, that a partner is not a possession. When they are jilted it is not so much their heart that suffers, the wound that really hurts is to their pride. They resort to violence for the sake of pride alone, violence does nothing for a broken heart. They feel they have lost respect in the eyes of their acquaintances but if they imagine violence will restore their estimation they have the wrong acquaintances.

McLean went to the police station where he worked and gave himself in. He was charged with murder and attempted murder and pleaded guilty to both charges. But his statement to the court yesterday did not express guilt. He regretted "having been involved in her death" which is a strange way to describe killing someone with a single shot to the head. Perhaps he blames "circumstances", not himself alone.

Domestic violence of any degree cannot be excused in this way. Acquaintances of the guilty need to challenge such excuses. They also need to show contempt for any man who resorts to violence against a woman.

The McLean case may be a tragedy for all concerned but the High Court obviously had no doubt where blame lay. The sentence suggest there were no mitigating elements. It was a calculated murder and any sympathy for the culprit would be misplaced.