Howse jailed for 28 years for murdering stepdaughters

11.00am

Masterton man Bruce Howse was today jailed for 28 years for the murder of his two stepdaughters - the country's longest imposed sentence since the abolition of the death penalty.

Howse, 40, was found guilty a fortnight ago of stabbing half sisters Saliel Aplin, 12, and Olympia Jetson, 11, to death in their Masterton home in the early hours of December 4 last year.

At the High Court in Wellington today, Justice Lowell Goddard sentenced Howse to life for the murders of Saliel and Olympia, with a non-parole period of 28 years.

She said Howse's vindictive viciousness and inability to admit remorse for the crimes were reasons for the long sentence.

"There are no mitigating factors whatsover in your case.

"You should never be released back into the community."

She said she had considered a recent appeal extending double murderer Mark Lundy's non-parole period from 17 to 21 years in deciding the sentence of this case.

Previously the longest fixed-term sentence imposed was on Lundy whose non-parole sentence was increased to 20 years by the Court of Appeal.

Lundy was found guilty of killing his wife Christine and daughter Amber at their Palmerston North home in August 2000.


Justice Goddard said to lie about the girls' mother Charlene Aplin's involvement in the murders was the most terrible thing about the incident.

"It was the most cruel of all....Anyone who had to sit through your trial and had to hear the evidence against you which was overwhelming could have no doubt whatsoever about your guilt."

She said she unequivocally accepted Howse was molesting the girls and that was his motive for the killings.

Howse was found guilty of the murder of the girls on December 4.

The verdict came exactly a year after the sisters were stabbed to death in their beds, in the sleepout of their Masterton home.

In her summing up to the jury then, Justice Goddard said they had to decide which of the two parents killed the girls.

She said the incident arose out of the domestic family dynamics of the household.

She said the crown maintained Howse killed the girls and the defence claimed it was their mother Charlene Aplin.

The judge said that if there was a reasonable possibility that Ms Aplin had done it, the jury had to acquit.

Because the jury could not get into the minds of Ms Aplin or Howse to see their intentions they had to look at the surrounding evidence, she said.

Crown prosecutor Grant Burston said Howse was trying to avoid moral responsibility for the girls' deaths.

He said that during the confession Howse had made to police he described exact detail that no one else could have known unless they had killed the girls.

He warned the jury that they were not setting out to prove that Howse sexually abused the girls, but it was something to consider as part of the background leading up to the killings; that Howse had known about allegations Olympia had made.

Mr Burston said a note by Olympia said it all: "My dad is going to kill me".

The allegation that Ms Aplin had done it was rubbish, "a pack of lies constructed to avoid the moral responsibility of these killings".

Howse had made up stories, wild goose chases for the police, voices in his head for the doctor and when they did not work he came up with shifting the blame to Ms Aplin, Mr Burston said.

Defence lawyer Val Nisbet told the jury the police had picked out Howse as the prime suspect too early and gathered evidence that led to him without considering the overall picture.

He said it had to be a possibility that Ms Aplin had killed the girls.

Mr Nisbet said it did not make sense to say that Howse's killing of the girls solved his problems.

"Howse was not an angel and nor is Charlene," he said.

Justice Goddard said Howse had waited while Olympia suffered an horrendous death to make sure she would not live to talk.

His probation report showed he had no guilt, no remorse, he was unmotivated to change and was anti-social.

"You are concerned only for yourself and self is your only preoccupation," she said.

Afterwards, Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Oxnam said he was delighted with the sentence. Howse was a cruel, evil and wicked man, he said.

Mr Oxnam said Ms Aplin was a good and kind mother, whose life had been forever changed by Howse's actions.

"There was no evidence that Charlene was in any way involved in the killing of the sisters."

Howse showed no emotion at the sentence.

Defence lawyer Ken Daniels said there had not yet been a decision on whether to appeal the sentence.

Howse would have to live with the choices he had made, he said.

- NZPA