At least 18 years jail for woman's murder

File photo / NZH

A drug addict and alcoholic who broke into the Christchurch home of a 62-year-old widow and bashed her to death in her bed for a couple of hundred dollars was jailed for life today.

Shaun Timothy Skilling, 23, was ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years before being eligible for parole for the murder of Gaynor Alice White in February a year ago.

He admitted killing Mrs White, hitting her with a hammer.

Justice Geoffrey Venning told Mrs White's grieving family in the High Court at Christchurch: "The sentence is not meant to be, and could never be, a measure of the value of her life."

Family members spoke in court of the loss of a "wonderful, kind, and generous woman", whose murder had left them insecure and suspicious.

Son Craig White, who discovered his mother's body, said he had to relive the image of the scene daily.

"I am angry that I have to stand in the same room as my mother's killer," he said.

Lisa Robinson, engaged to Mr White at the time, described Mrs White as "a delight ... kind and wonderful".

She had been killed for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars.

"She would have given you the money if you had asked. You didn't need to hurt her," Miss Robinson told Skilling.

Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier rejected the defence suggestion the system failed Skilling when he tried to get help for alcohol and drug problems.

Skilling had previously been subject to rehabilitative sentences but had failed to attend alcohol and drug services for treatment in 2009 and 2010.

"The opportunities to receive help were there for the offender but he chose not to take them," she said.

Ms Boshier also said the crown did not accept Skilling's expressions of remorse, the pre-sentence report quoting him as absolving himself of responsibility.

But defence lawyer Tim Fournier said Skilling's remorse was genuine. He had accepted responsibility with his guilty plea, although he had experienced dissociative amnesia which blocked out his recall of the killing.

Justice Venning said there had been an overwhelming case against Skilling before his guilty plea. Blood spots from the victim had been found on his shoes and on a sweatshirt in her car which he had taken and used to transport and sell the property stolen in the burglary.

He was assessed as a high risk of reoffending and suffered from self-inflicted drug abuse.

His grandfather had taken him to hospital before the murder to get him help because he was having murderous thoughts of killing himself or others. He was refused admission because he was heavily intoxicated on drugs and was diagnosed as a drug addiction case rather than a mental health issue.

"It seems you failed to take the opportunity of treatment for drug and alcohol addiction available to you as part of previous sentences," said the judge.

He said Skilling had struggled with the loss of his father when he was 13, fell in with a bad group, and began offending. He had a serious drug addiction problem, using whatever drugs were available including heroin, morphine, and methamphetamine.

Previous convictions included aggravated robbery.

- NZPA