“Now let’s deport him! Australia has shown us the way, he does not belong to New Zealand so we should not have to cover his care financially!”

Sensible Sentencing Trust say a new standard has been set in the criminal justice system with Justice Mander imposing New Zealand’s first ever life sentence with no parole.

National Spokesperson Jess McVicar says “We congratulate Justice Mander, this entire case sets a new benchmark for victims of serious violent crime for a number of reasons; Victim Impact Statements (VIS’s) for a start should from now follow the same process, in that at this sentencing victims were able read their VIS’s as they wished to in their own words with no editing.

It is heartbreaking that it took such a horrific act of violence and the death of so many innocent people for our justice system to finally put the victims needs first.”

Jess said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has today made a statement that shows she understood the importance of Victim Impact Statements and the strength it takes for a victim to get up face the offender in this way.

“It can be incredibly powerful for a victim to do this, but when their words are changed so they do not upset or hurt the offender, it takes that empowerment away and can be utterly soul destroying consequently completely reversing the actual intent of Victim Impact Statements.”

Jess said today’s sentence shows our justice system has the ability to impose a true life sentence when it chooses to and believes up until today has been too afraid to use the maximum penalty.

“Now let’s deport him! Australia has shown us the way, he does not belong to New Zealand so we should not have to cover his care financially!”

The Sensible Sentencing Trust are disappointed with Jacinda Ardern’s comments regarding deporting the offender; stating her Government has had plenty of time to review legislation with our deportation laws, especially in terrorist cases.

Jess says “The discussion did not need to be had today; in fact it should have been sorted when he pleaded guilty. Why delay it? Why hide behind the difficulties of legislation when the Government have shown they can change laws quickly when it pleases them?”

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