Concrete death boy jailed for four years

A 15-year-old boy was jailed for four years today for throwing a concrete slab off an Auckland motorway overbridge killing a man.

Ngatai Rewiti was acquitted of murder in July but found guilty of the manslaughter of motorist Chris Currie from Taupo, after the incident in August last year.

Mr Currie was driving north on the Southern Motorway when the 8kg lump Rewiti dropped on his car killed him instantly.

In the High Court in Auckland today, Justice Helen Winkelmann described the incident as act of "breath-taking stupidity" but she said it was not premeditated.

She discounted his sentence from a starting point of six years allowing one year off for his early guilty plea to manslaughter and another for his remorse.

- NZPA