Sons can't forgive mother's killer

Tonia Ashleigh Bennett in the dock during her sentencing. Photo / Brett Phibbs

One by one, three brothers stood and asked their mother's killer, 'Why?'

Through angry tears Brad Chapman, 19, said he would never forgive ex-girlfriend Tonya Bennett for setting fire to his Pukekohe home knowing his mother, Lynette Chapman, 49, was asleep upstairs with the television on.

Red-faced and blinking, the 18-year-old arsonist avoided eye contact and turned her shoulders away.

"I introduced my mum to you. She opened her home and heart to you," Mr Chapman told Bennett in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.

"I keep asking myself how you could do this. It doesn't make sense to me ... I can only hope that you get the punishment that fits the crime."

Sentencing Bennett to life imprisonment with a minimum non- parole period of 11 years, Justice Geoffrey Venning said she took away "a mother, partner and daughter from people who loved her" when she lit an absinthe-soaked T-shirt, tossed it at the foot of the stairs and closed the door.

He acknowledged the teenager's dysfunctional upbringing - living under a social welfare shadow and peppered by violence, moving homes, school expulsions and substance abuse - but did not excuse the act.

"Your offending on the night was stupid. It had a tragic result but was committed in the context of your troubled personal circumstances."

A doctor's report described Bennett as a "damaged young woman who was essentially on a collision course to somewhere".

Defence counsel Clare Bennett said her client's childhood was "hallmarked by dysfunction" and jail would provide the first stable living environment in her life.

She said Bennett had expressed remorse to a probation officer, saying, "This has been the biggest regret of my whole life. The incident is with me every day, I have nightmares about it every night."

But she refused to write an apology letter for the sentencing.

"In her view, providing a letter at this late juncture would be seen as her somehow trying to gain some advantage for late expression [of remorse]," her lawyer said.

Throughout the hearing Brad Chapman leaned forward in the gallery to glare at Bennett in the dock, trying to catch her eye.

When his grandfather Bob Hunkin lamented the loss of a "lovely lady who welcomed you [Bennett] into her home", the 19-year-old broke down, putting his head in his hands.

For Brad, Todd and Cole Chapman, life without their mum is inexplicable, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb read out 13-year-old Cole's words: "I can never explain in words how much my life has changed as a result. You [Tonya Bennett] took everything from me. I miss my mum every day."

Cole missed his mum's hugs and her kisses and would never celebrate Mother's Day again, Mr Glubb read.

"Life seems to be standing still and keeps replaying the day you took my mum away from me."

Eldest brother Todd, 20, asked Bennett why she took away "the most important woman in our lives" and turned his life upside down.

Mr Hunkin, Ms Chapman's father, asked "what sort of monster could plan and carry out such a deed".

"I have waited 17 long months to see you punished for your despicable crime," he said. "As long as we live, the loss of our dearly loved daughter will never go away."

Name suppression for the youth who acted as Bennett's lookout was continued.

In March, the 19-year-old admitted manslaughter and two counts of arson and was sentenced to two years' jail with leave to apply for home detention if a suitable residence came up.

DEADLY RESULT

April 20, 2009, Wellington St, Pukekohe:

* Tonya Bennett and friend drink and do drugs at care home across the road.
* Soak T-shirt in absinthe and set fire to it on Lynette Chapman's doorstep. It burns, but goes out.
* Bennett gets spare hidden key and goes inside. Her teenage companion acts as lookout.
* Drops another burning T-shirt at foot of stairs.
* Hears television going upstairs; knows Lynette Chapman sleeps with it on.
* Closes door and returns home.
* Caregiver overhears Bennett and the lookout talking about the arson and calls police.