Life for Castlecliff Beach murderer

IT HAS been 17 months since Wanganui teen Jeremy Frew was killed at Castlecliff Beach ? and yesterday his killer received a life sentence for stabbing him in the heart.
Rawiri James Hatata, 17, Rio Jade Hartley, 20, Shae Graham Brider, 20, and Jordan Fortunato Geneva Aranui, 17 were sentenced in the High Court at Wanganui yesterday for the raft of charges they were found guilty of during a three-week trial last month.
Before he delivered the sentences Justice Miller told the four their actions that night were cowardly.
Mr Frew was stabbed at Castlecliff Beach while sitting in his car. The attack came after Daniel Grey and Greg Parnell were assaulted on Somme Parade.
Following the stabbing at the beach the group moved to Victoria Ave, where Robert Kerrigan was stabbed in the back. For murdering Mr Frew, Hatata was sentenced to life in jail. For causing grievous bodily harm to Robert Kerrigan, Hatata received 10 years, for injuring Daniel Grey with intent to cause grievous bodily harm five years, and for injuring Greg Parnell with intent to cause grievous bodily harm two years.
The sentences will be served concurrently and it will be 10 years before he can apply for parole.
Hartley received eight years for manslaughter, 11 years for the assault on Robert Kerrigan, four years for the assault on Daniel Grey and three years for Greg Parnell's assault.
His sentences will also be served concurrently and it will be seven years before he can apply for parole.
Brider was given five years for manslaughter, seven and a-half years for the Robert Kerrigan assault and two years each for assaults on Daniel Grey and Greg Parnell.
The sentences are concurrent and parole can be applied for in three and three-quarter years.
Aranui received four years for the Robert Kerrigan assault, 18 months for the Daniel Grey assault and one year for Greg Parnell's assault.
Justice Miller said the four were drinking and consuming cannabis on Guy Fawkes night, 2004, when they went out looking for trouble.
"You were simply looking for people that you could assault." His Honour said there was a "racial flavour" to the Somme Pde and Victoria Ave attacks and none of the victims did anything to provoke the attacks.
"They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
Justice Miller told the packed courtroom he had no doubt the attacks wouldn't have occurred if the four hadn't been together.
"This was the work of cowards. You chose victims who were outnumbered, were defenceless and didn't know of the impending attacks."
He said the murder of Mr Frew had a devastating effect on his family and friends and was "wholly without justification".
Justice Miller said he took little account of expressions of remorse, particularly from Hatata and Hartley.
Hatata did not plead guilty to murder and Hartley appeared to regret the consequences of his actions rather than the actions themselves.
Before the sentences were delivered, Crown Prosecutor Stephen Ross said the Crown maintained the four were operating as a gang and encouraging each other in everything they did, which was "lawlessness through violence".
Mr Ross said after the first assault on Somme Pde they went looking for violence because they had a taste for it and wanted more.
A racial element to the attacks was evident in respect to the stabbing of Robert Kerrigan on Victoria Ave and also the Somme Pde assaults, a fact Judge Miller accepted.
With regards to the murder charge against Hatata, Mr Ross said the stabbing was clearly pre-mediated.
"It was cowardly, callous and cruel. Jeremy Frew was restricted in the driver's seat and didn't know he was about to be stabbed."
Lance Rowe, acting for Hatata, said he could be rehabilitated.
"He's a young man who isn't beyond help," Mr Rowe said. With no prior convictions, Hatata had also expressed remorse for his actions by way of an apology letter to Mr Frew's family.
Hartley's counsel, John Rowan QC, said Hartley was more "mellow" after 17 months in jail and also genuinely remorseful.
Mr Rowan indicated there would be an appeal lodged against Hartley's conviction.
Peter Brosnahan said his client, Brider, didn't know it was Jeremy Frew who was being attacked by Hartley and Hatata.
This was in response to an earlier comment by Justice Miller that, despite knowing Mr Frew, Brider didn't nothing to help him.
Mr Frew's mother, Donna Travers, said it didn't matter what the sentences were ? it would never bring her son back.
"They are going to get out one day. They will be able to have a family and will walk past me in the street," Ms Travers told the Chronicle.
She said it was the Travers family who had the life sentence and felt no better after yesterday's sentencing. "It was all for those boys, not Jeremy? for the boys who murdered my son."