Court reduces killers' sentences

12.45pm

UPDATE - The Court of Appeal has reduced by three years the minimum non-parole period for two multiple murderers serving life sentences.

The Court cut the non-parole period for Bruce Howse from 28 years to 25 years, but dismissed an appeal against his convictions for the 2001 murder of his two stepdaughters.

William Duane Bell, who killed three people and severely wounded a fourth person while robbing the Panmure RSA in 2001 had his non-period reduced from 33 years to 30 years.

Howse was found guilty of murdering Saliel Aplin, 12, and Olympia Jetson, 11, in Masterton on December 4, 2001. The girls were stabbed.

In a decision delivered by Justice Tipping today, the three-member court said even if problems they had identified with the trial had not occurred, the jury would without doubt have convicted Howse on the two counts of murder.

The combination of points noted in the decision led to an irresistible inference of guilt, which the jury must have recognised.

"We therefore consider that no substantial miscarriage of justice has actually occurred in this case," they said.

In considering the appeal against the non-parole period the judges said there was no doubt the crimes were "appalling".

"Olympia was not killed outright and bled slowly to death. It can reasonably be inferred that her stepfather's presence prevented her from seeking help. This was callousness of a very high degree."

But given all the relevant circumstances of the case, they could not accept the Crown's submission that the original non-parole sentence of 28 years was within the discretion of the sentencing judge.

It was higher than was justified on comparison with the 10-year statutory datum, and was similarly too high when its relationship with the 20-year minimum imposed on Mark Lundy, convicted of killing his wife and young daughter, was brought to account as a check.

"Having weighed up carefully all the difficult and competing issues involved, we have come to the view that 25 years is the proper period in this case."

Bell was sentenced in February in the High Court at Auckland for the murders of William Absolum, 63, Wayne Johnson, 56, and Mary Hobson, 44, and trying to kill Susan Couch, then 38, at the Mt Wellington-Panmure Returned Services' Association on December 8, 2001.

In their decision today the three Court of Appeal judges also raised the possibility Bell could be kept in prison for the rest of his life.

"No one can tell what risk Bell will pose to the safety of the community in 30 years time," they said in the decision delivered by Justice Tipping.

"The psychiatric reports before the court suggest that he represents, in the words of one of them, a high and persistent risk of violent reoffending.

"Unless that risk can be convincingly dispelled, Bell ought to be kept in custody for the rest of his natural life."

At 30 years, the non-parole period for Bell was still the longest minimum an offender had been required to serve in this country.

- NZPA