Killer's sentence labelled 'lax'

The family of a woman tied up and struck up to 50 times in front of her child is angry that her killer has escaped the sentence reserved for the worst type of murder.

Nicola Jane Hackell, 37, was bound with wire and beaten to death by former partner Nicholas Robert Marsh over a Nazi flag taken from his Christchurch flat.

At one stage, Marsh got his 12-year-old son from his earlier relationship with Ms Hackell to help drag her unconscious body back inside his flat.

Ms Hackell's 5-year-old son from another relationship saw much of the beating.

Marsh left her dumped in the hallway until the following afternoon, when he realised she had stopped breathing and called 111. Ms Hackell died of a brain haemorrhage, one of 100 injuries the Crown said she suffered.

Marsh was given the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of kidnapping and murdering Ms Hackell.

But Justice John Fogarty yesterday decided against imposing a minimum non-parole term of 17 years intended for any murder with a "high level" of brutality, cruelty, depravity and callousness.

Instead, he imposed a minimum non-parole period of 14 years.

Ms Hackell's sister, Erica Hackell, told the Herald she could not imagine a more brutal attack. The judge was "lax" in not giving Marsh a full 17-year non-parole period.

"How brutal do you have to be? What does it take?" Erica Hackell said. "[Marsh] left her to die. If he had called for help, she wouldn't be dead now."

Justice Fogarty described the violent actions of Marsh as miserable, cowardly and violent.

He said he did not apply a 17-year minimum because Marsh had not intended to kill Ms Hackell, had shown some remorse and had made an attempt to apply CPR and place his victim in the recovery position, Newstalk ZB reported.

Marsh was sentenced to seven years' jail for kidnapping Ms Hackell, but this will be served concurrently with the life sentence.