Sentence appealed in grass-skirt case

Matthew Schofield is to challenge his two-year prison sentence for setting fire to a Merrill Lynch colleague's fancy dress at the firm's Christmas party last year.

Schofield's lawyer, Stuart Grieve, QC, filed an appeal against sentence in the Court of Appeal at Wellington this week.

Justice Rodney Hansen sentenced the 27-year-old investment banker in the High Court at Auckland last month on one charge of manslaughter and one of injuring by an unlawful act. Schofield was also ordered to pay $37,000 reparation for the "practical joke" that went wrong. Gareth MacFadyen died from severe burns after Schofield set his Hawaiian grass skirt alight with a cigarette lighter.