Parents want to help victims

Ron and Faye Bishop. Photo / Rob Tucker

Parents express relief at sentences given to the gang who killed their son.

The parents of the man murdered in the bizarre "body-in-the-garage" case have pledged to work with others who have lost loved ones to violence.

Ron and Faye Bishop have emerged from the six-week murder trial determined to use their experience with the justice system to help others.

Ron Bishop said his and Faye's life had been forever changed by the murder of their son Dean Browne, 38, and the subsequent trial at the High Court in New Plymouth.

"Our future has been changed, our destiny has been re-written. We have to help others. Who better to help than someone who has been there?"

Faye said: "You can't comprehend the complexities of the system and what it does to you until you go through it."

Their victim impact statements were censored as expected, but they said they had been treated in a warm and human way at court.

The Bishops praised trial judge Justice Mark Woolford for his sensitivity in taking time to speak with them personally before the sentencing.

"The justice system is still broken but if [Justice] Mark Woolford is the face of the judiciary coming through, then there is light at the end of the tunnel," Ron said.

Browne, 38, was murdered as he slept in a Wellington flat at which he was staying in January last year. His body was found in a Taranaki garage.

Mikhail "Casper" Pandey-Johnson, 25, was sentenced on Friday to 18 years without parole for the murder, even though he wasn't present when Browne was killed.

He was described as exerting a powerful control over his Killer Clown Fiend acolytes, including Karl "Little C" Nuku, 19, who was sentenced to 18 years without parole for the murderous attack.

In sentencing, Justice Woolford told Pandey-Johnson his upbringing was "seriously dysfunctional". He said it was complicated by his father being a drug addict and his mother having mental health problems and being suicidal.

He said Pandey-Johnson left home aged 17 and formed the Killer Clown Fiends which "became your family", attracting others estranged from their families.

He said Nuku was among those. He moved in with Pandey-Johnson after being kicked out of home for drug use, aged 16.

Pandey-Johnson's family were present for the sentencing.

Jasmine Pandey, 17, who initially introduced Nuku to Pandey-Johnson, was one of them. The young mother-of-one shocked the Bishops by coming to court arrayed in the purple and green of the Killer Clown Fiends.

Jasmine spent much of the sentencing rubbing the heavily pregnant stomach of her sister Meisha Pandey, 19, who was in the room at the time Browne was beaten to death.

Meisha was also the only person in the room at the time Browne was killed who was not accused by the others present of committing the murder. Of the others present, the woman in bed with Meisha at the time of the murder became a Crown witness whose evidence was given against the other two - Rhyys "Texx" Fournier, found not guilty, and Nuku.

In December last year, Meisha was sent to prison for six weeks for refusing to testify in court over what she had seen.

She did not appear in the murder trial as a witness and when asked to comment on Friday, Jasmine said: "Give her some privacy".

Their mother Veena Pandey, 43, was present, as she had been every day of the trial. She visited her son regularly until March when she was caught trying to smuggle cannabis into New Plymouth Prison.

Her criminal record carries few convictions but a court appearance in 2003 suggests the eccentricity she became known for during the trial. In appealing against a drink-driving conviction, she told the judge the case should be dismissed because "her body naturally produced an excessive amount of alcohol" so she was obviously not guilty. The appeal failed.