For immediate release: 15 February 2013
Sensible Sentencing Trust: Remorseless Killer Given Chances His Victim Never Had
The Sensible Sentencing Trust has today expressed its disgust at the extent of the criminal history of the killer of
Wellington journalist Philip Cottrell.
It has today been revealed that 20 year old Nicho Waipuka had at least 24 previous convictions prior to his brutal,
unprovoked attack on Phillip Cottrell.
Sensible Sentencing spokesperson, Ruth Money today said: “The justice system has once again failed abysmally. It had the
opportunity to intervene in a meaningful way to stop Waipuka’s contempt for the rules of society at least 24 times
before killing Phillip Cottrell - all before he was even 20 years old.
“Once again, an innocent member of society has paid the ultimate price for a system hell-bent on giving repeat offenders
chance after chance, with no meaningful punishment for their crimes. Nicho Waipuka never gave Phillip Cottrell a chance
but the justice system gave Waipuka at least 24 of them. Waipuka took them all, and ultimately much more.
“We thank Justice Forrest Miller for the nearly 13 year sentence he handed down to Waipuka, but remain disgusted the
system allowed this to happen when the writing was already on the wall – at least 24 times.”
ENDS