Editorial: Justice was served for Moko

Moko Rangitoheriri.

In the eyes of many people, no sentence would ever have been punishment enough for Tania Shailer and David Haerewa.

They were yesterday each sentenced to 17 years in jail for the manslaughter of 3-year-old Moko Rangitoheriri in Taupo. The boy had been left in their care, but instead they subjected him to months of abuse. The details of what he went through are horrific.

Since the day it was revealed the original murder charges had been replaced with manslaughter, there has been public outcry over that decision. Yesterday, signs among the marchers in Rotorua and around the country repeated that: "murder not manslaughter" and "a life for a life". The term "plea bargaining" has been used. But was that the reality?

Attorney-General Chris Finlayson yesterday took the unusual step of issuing a statement setting out why the Crown replaced the murder charges with manslaughter.

There was a "substantial risk" if the case went to trial that the defendants could be acquitted of both murder and manslaughter due to a lack of required evidence.

The Attorney-General, Crown solicitors, police and others involved in prosecuting his case are human. Some will be parents. I'd suggest many are just as sickened by the facts of the case as the rest of New Zealand. They would have wanted justice for Moko as much as anyone.

But what do they do? They could lay a manslaughter charge and have a far better chance of a conviction and substantial prison sentence - or throw the dice and risk seeing the killers walk free.

Manslaughter and murder carry the same maximum penalty. I can understand the reasoning behind the decision.

If we as a country have a problem with this then we need to have an informed debate around our laws, not the way they are applied.

I commend the thousands of people who marched around the country. They made sure Moko's life counted in a way it didn't in the months before his death.

As they stood outside in the rain, Justice Sarah Katz imposed the harshest sentence to date in New Zealand for the manslaughter of a child.

This was no cause for celebration. But it was, in my view, a just result.