Mulligan gets life for murder of Marice McGregor

Liar. Conman. Murderer.
That's the stark assessment by the McGregor family of Dean Richard Mulligan, the man who brutally murdered sickness beneficiary Marice McGregor last year, bashing her three times in the head with an iron bar before dumping her body in a remote ravine.
Mulligan was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 15-year non-parole period, and Ms McGregor's family hope that is the last they have to deal with him for a long time.
Ms McGregor's body was found on May 12 last year at the bottom of a ravine at what is known as Whiskey Bend, off State Highway 4, about 50km north of Wanganui.
Mulligan took her to the ravine on April 19 last year, before hitting her with the iron bar.
Mulligan, 44, was found guilty of murdering Ms McGregor, 45, after a 10-day trial which ended last month.
At yesterday's sentencing in the High Court at Wanganui, Ms McGregor's cousin, Martyn Burgess, read a victim impact statement on behalf of the family.
He described Mulligan as a "callous" and "deceitful" man who had drained Ms McGregor financially and manipulated her to the point where she had to turn to her family for basic necessities.
It was he who had first alerted them to her disappearance.
"You knew the truth and you lied to our faces ... Marice trusted you and by proxy, so did we."
The McGregors were a close family and Marice had the right to keep some of her personal details from them.
He spoke of the family's trauma at being in the media spotlight and the horror of sitting though the trial as Mulligan maligned Ms McGregor, made up fantastical, fictional lies, and showed no remorse.
After Mulligan was sentenced, brother Rowan McGregor told media the family felt the trial had been thorough and they trusted the judicial process and the logic that Mulligan's sentence was based on.
He said there was part of their sister she kept to herself, but she 'Liar and killer' gets life
was an adult and entitled to that. They would remember her on the farm, helping out with chores and Christmas parties.
"She was a very happy person, she wouldn't have hurt a fly," Mr McGregor said.
He said he would not know what to say to Mulligan if given the chance, because he could not understand "how the man ticks".
The family found it difficult that Mulligan showed no remorse.
"That sums up what I and the family think of him, he doesn't have a problem with the truth because he doesn't use it very often. He was a liar and a conman and then a murderer, and we will take a long time to get used to that."
He said he empathised with Mulligan's brother, Sean,and their mother for what they had gone through too, and thanked the community for their support.
Sean Mulligan said he was "semi-pleased" with the sentence imposed on his brother, having been hoping for 18 years or more as a minimum non-parole period.
Mulligan was sentenced by Justice Denis Clifford.
Crown solicitor Lance Rowe said Mulligan had committed a highly calculated and premeditated murder and argued for a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.
Defence counsel Stephen Ross questioned the extent of the calculation behind the killing, arguing for a minimum non-parole period of 13 to 15 years.
Justice Clifford concluded that he did not think Mulligan's actions had the calculated planning required for a 17-year minimum sentence.