Father saw 'daughter's blood before his eyes'

Deepak Nagpal. File photo / Alan Gibson

The father of a murdered two-year-old girl said he saw his "daughter's blood before his eyes" before he charged at her killer in the High Court at Rotorua today.

Fruit packer Deepak Nagpal, 24, last year pleaded guilty to two charges of murder, after fatally stabbing Ravneet Sangha and her daughter Anna in their home on June 4 2010.

In the High Court at Rotorua this morning, Justice Brewer sentenced Nagpal to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.

After sentence was passed, Dev Sangha - the husband and father of the victims - burst out of the public gallery and ran up to Nagpal in the dock.

He yelled in Punjabi "I'll see you in 20 years", and had to be restrained by court staff and a supporter.

Outside the court, and supported by a police officer, Mr Sangha said although he respected New Zealand law it was seeing his daughter's blood flashing before his eyes that had sparked his violent outburst.

However, on balance he was satisfied with the decision of the court.

"I cannot say how I am feeling," the taxi driver said.

"He (Nagpal) spent a year and a half with me and my family. I don't think it is going to get any better. I don't feel like working."

He intended to remain in Tauranga where he had his adopted mother and good friends to support him.

Clutching a photograph of Anna as a baby, Mr Sangha's adopted mother, Ann Munro of Mt Maunganui, said the child had been her "grandbaby" and was named after her.

Her adopted son had adored his wife and child.

"Initially I couldn't believe it [the murders], but as time has passed I have had to learn to move on. It is so so sad."

A fellow Tauranga taxi driver, Bahadur Singh, said he and a number of colleagues had been at court to support Mr Sangha and would remain there for him. Although he had not been in the group that ran towards Nagpal, he knew their reaction had been instinctive.

"A lot of them are still very angry," he said.

Nagpal was boarding with the Sangha family at their Otumoetai home before the attack.

Shortly before the attack, Mrs Sangha sent a text message to a close family friend indicating she had an issue with Nagpal concerning money and had asked him to leave the house.

He pleaded guilty in Tauranga District Court to their murders in the Tauranga suburb of Otumoetai on June 4.

The Crown told the district court Nagpal's attack on the mother and daughter was a "determined, frenzied, violent and sustained attack".

During his trial, the court heard that Nagpal stabbed Mrs Sangha 100 times with a number of wounds delivered with such that force serrations were left on her skull.

Anna found her mother lying in a pool of blood in the laundry and fled to her bedroom and then the lounge, but was found by Nagpal who carried her back to the laundry and stabbed her 10 times in the face and neck, the crown said.

He then threw her body into the washing machine with his own clothing and turned it on.

Nagpal then took jewellery and ATM cards belonging to the Sangha family and over the next two days he took a total of $6853 from their account.

Police discovered Mrs Sangha's body at the Sanghas' home on June 6 2010 - two days after she was killed - following a tip-off from a member of the public.

They found Nagpal at a central Auckland property.

Anna's body lay undiscovered for 20 more hours, despite an intensive search of the local area by police and search and rescue teams.

Mr Sangha was in India on business when the murders happened.

He chose not to read his victim impact statement to the court.