Husband: I hope he burns in hell

By Louisa Cleave

No jail term could be long enough for the man who killed ACC worker Janet Pike in her office, her distraught husband says.

"I hope he burns in hell," Stephen Pike said outside the High Court at Auckland after schizophrenic Johnny Idolf Manu was sentenced to serve no less than 121/2 years of a life sentence for murdering 34-year-old Mrs Pike on June 24.

"The judge has done something and I'm grateful for that, but it would never be long enough," Mr Pike said.

Friends of the Pikes wept in court as sentence was passed.

Ellen Heebink, who befriended Mrs Pike on a motorcycling trip two years ago, said: "Nothing is going to make it right. I'm glad that they did give him more than the normal 10 years [minimum parole period], but it's never going to be enough.

"Janet was [Stephen's] life and he has lost it."

In court, lawyer David McNaughton read an apology from 35-year-old Manu, but his words of regret and a request for forgiveness fell on deaf ears.

"It meant nothing, it was wasted," Mr Pike said.

Ellen Heebink said the words came too late and were shallow.

"It gives the feeling that he is doing it to benefit his own court case rather than being genuine.

"I really hope he realises what he's done, but I doubt it."

Manu went to the ACC office in Henderson because he believed he was owed $350 in back payments.

Mrs Pike, not his usual case manager, told him he was not entitled to the money.

Manu left and then returned, agitated and upset.

He left once more and walked next door to the Warehouse, where he asked to buy a baseball bat.

When he found the store sold only children's bats, he bought a kitchen knife and returned to the office with it concealed under his jersey.

When Mrs Pike saw him in a private room and said he could not close the door, Manu pulled out the knife.

She screamed and he stabbed her once in the chest, severing the aorta and puncturing both lungs to kill her instantly.

Manu had 14 convictions for violence, including stabbing a bank worker several times when he was refused a Visa card, and had been diagnosed as schizophrenic for the past 18 years.

Mr McNaughton said Manu should have been committed to a psychiatric institution, and the mental health system had failed to protect him and the public.

Manu had no determined intention on the day he killed Mrs Pike but merely reacted to events as they unfolded around him, Mr McNaughton said.

However, Justice Potter said Manu had acted deliberately when he bought the knife and returned to the office.

The circumstances surrounding the murder were exceptional enough to justify more than the normal 10-year minimum parole period, she said.

"It was a brutal, deliberate and lethal act. His victim had no chance. She was a stranger and a completely innocent person. She was doing her job in the community, as many do."