Gustav Sanft was jailed for the manslaughter of his daughter Amokura Daniels-Sanft. Video / Jason Oxenham / Doug Sherring
An Auckland father who killed his 2-year-old daughter when he pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger at point blank range will stay behind bars until he can find an address away from his old haunts and associates.
Amokoura Daniels-Sanft died after she was shot in the headat her South Auckland home on June 2, 2016.
In September 2017 her father Gustav Otto Sanft, 27, was found guilty of manslaughter following a high profile jury trial.
Sanft had earlier pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a pistol, a sawn-off shotgun.
Justice Geoffrey Venning sentenced him to four years and four months in jail.
Sanft was also sentenced for supplying cannabis and Justice Venning ruled the gun used to kill Amokoura was being used for protection while peddling drugs.
The horrific and traumatic incident occurred while the family were moving from their South Auckland home on Favona Rd to begin a new life in West Auckland.
Amokoura, who was playing on a couch, was shot just above her left eye at close range, causing her skull to fracture as she suffered a significant and unsurvivable head wound.
Sanft was toying with the modified shotgun when it fired.
When he first appeared before the Parole Board he did not seek an early release from prison.
Back then the board heard he was doing "very well" behind bars and had completed a number of programmes and was undertaking others.
At the time he was on a waiting list for a drug treatment programme which he wanted to finish before he considered release.
Sanft appeared before the board for a second time on April 7.
His lawyer Phil Hamlin told the board he had completed all of the rehabilitation required of him.
"He appears to have done well," said Parole Board panel convenor Kathryn Snook.
However well he had done, he could not be released because there was no approved address for him to reside at outside prison.
"Mr Sanft spoke about his high risk situations. They include negative associates and the area that he stays in," Snook said in the decision.
"It is clear that South Auckland is a risk for him.
"He said that he has matured and has thought a lot about how it was that he put himself into the situation that led to the very tragic death of his daughter.
"He said he focused on all the wrong things at that time and not on the dangers including the danger of having a gun in the house.
"The issue of an address is a difficult one for Mr Sanft given the nature of the offending."
Sanft has put forward an address where he could live post-release but that was in South Auckland, and had not yet been canvassed by Corrections.
Sanft and his lawyer conceded a different address would be better.
"Mr Sanft has done well on his sentence however risk remains undue in the absence of a robust release proposal given the nature of Mr Sanft's offending," Snook said.
"Parole is declined."
Sanft will be seen again in August this year.
"We hope that a further reintegration meeting can be organised where all of those who are providing support can attend and a robust release plan... can be developed for Mr Sanft," Snook finished.
Gustav Sanft was jailed for the manslaughter of his daughter Amokura Daniels-Sanft. Photo / Michael Craig
At his sentencing Sanft, who maintained from the beginning that he did not know the gun that killed Amokoura was loaded, said it "just exploded".
Despite the gun being modified and faulty, however, firearms experts found it would not fire on its own and the trigger needed to be pulled, the trial heard.
