Kevin Osborne stood up in front of families he had devastated by stealing the identities of their dead children and quietly apologised for his "reprehensible" actions.
"If I could take it back, or if there's anything I can do, I will do so," he said with his head
bowed in the dock of the Christchurch District Court.
But the several families, among the 99 whose dead children were taken in the scam by Osborne and his co-offenders, were not convinced by his speech.
While he may be genuinely remorseful "what he said wasn't enough", said Esther Graham, whose brother Jonathan _ who died as a baby _ was one of the identities stolen.
Ian Barker, whose son Brett's identity was also targeted by Osborne, said: "His apology would have had a lot more weight to it, and I would have given a lot more consideration to it, had he been prepared to indicate ... how he carried [the scam] out.
"Because we still don't know, as victims, how he stole our children's identities."
Osborne, 32, was sentenced yesterday to 14 months' jail for multiple frauds in relation to the identities of 10 dead children he stole. He and his co-offenders obtained birth certificates for the children, then IRD numbers, and used the recreated identities to claim student loans of $179,000.
Osborne also used the stolen identities to hire computer games he never returned, and to buy a $8385 television on hire purchase that was never recovered.
The scam was born in 1997, and Osborne was only caught last November when he returned from Australia t after visiting his dying mother.
Osborne was forced to listen as the families read statements in court revealing the pain and violation his crimes had caused.
Paul Rennie said the peace he used to feel at the cemetery where his son Simon was buried "has been stolen from us".
Osborne said he was an angry young man when he committed the crimes.
