Farm worker jailed for shooting boss

A farm worker who murdered his boss has been jailed for life.

Craig Ross, of Kaikohe, was today sentenced by Justice Colin Nicholson in the High Court in Whangarei to a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

At a trial which ended in August, a jury found the 31-year-old Kaikohe man man guilty of murdering farmer Robert Green, 53, at his home near Kaikohe on August 12 last year.

Today Ross was also sentenced on charges of rape, abduction and commission of a crime with a firearm relating to events between August 12 and August 14 last year.

He was sentenced to eight years' jail on three of the rape charges, 10 years' jail on a further three charges of rape; seven years' jail on the charge of abduction and five years' jail for the commission of a crime with a firearm -- sentences to be served concurrently with the life sentence.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)