Killer's remorse 'too little, far too late'

A friend holds a photo of murdered Christchurch woman Vanessa Pickering after her funeral. Photo / APN

He killed a Christchurch mother and sexually assaulted two other people on the same day, and yesterday serial offender Malcolm George Chaston made a last-ditch effort to show remorse.

Chaston, 41, told the judge at his court sentencing he hated himself for what he had done.

But with a history of 71 crimes, including rapes and assaults - and his alleged boasting of wanting to kill and become famous before he went on to murder Vanessa Pickering last year, neither Miss Pickering's family nor the judge was buying it.

"It was far too late. I would never have accepted [his remorse] right from the word go anyway," Miss Pickering's mother, Rachel Kitson, told the Herald.

"For anyone to do what he did, there's no excuse for it. I don't give a damn what he thinks."

At the High Court in Rangiora yesterday, Justice Christine French said it seemed the only expression of remorse Chaston had shown, and the case for an open-ended jail sentence of preventive detention was "strong" and "clear-cut".

Chaston was given a minimum sentence of 20 years' jail for killing Miss Pickering. He was led away to cries of "utu" from her family and friends.

The court heard that Chaston had attacked Miss Pickering so brutally in February last year that he broke off the handle of the serrated knife that he used to cut her face, neck, chest, abdomen and hands.

When he led police to her body, he told them he "stabbed her in the eye 'cos she was staring at me".

One of the victims of Chaston's sex attacks yesterday told the court she was thankful to be alive, but still thought about her ordeal everyday.

"I hope Malcolm never gets to see the sun again," she said.

Dressed in a plain green jersey, with a balding head, thick beard and pale, lined face, Chaston looked a defeated man as he sat in the court dock. He hung his head for much of the two-hour sentencing.

The court heard he had a troubled upbringing in boys' homes and was drawn into drug abuse and gang life.

When at one point he did glance over to the packed public gallery of Miss Pickering's family and friends, and smiled, several of them held up pictures of Miss Pickering and he promptly looked away again.

Some members of Miss Pickering's family tried to engage him directly as they spoke of their loss. In court yesterday, Ms Kitson told Chaston: "You could have stopped after inflicting that first cut, but you chose not to. Vanessa wasn't an animal, but you Chaston, are".

Ms Kitson later told the Herald: "He couldn't even look any of the family in the eye. Apart from everything else, he's just a wuss and a coward".