Man jailed for 'tragic' shooting of girlfriend

Samantha Henderson. Photo / Supplied

They hadn't been fighting, they hadn't been drinking, there was no intent to kill.

But when Justin Paul Goldstone pointed a loaded, sawn-off shotgun at his girlfriend Samantha Henderson's face as he posed for photographs, he did so with "recklessness that defies belief".

In sentencing the 21-year-old Warkworth beneficiary to three years and four months' imprisonment when he appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, Justice Forrest Miller accepted Goldstone's remorse but couldn't excuse his actions on December 4.

"The gun went off because you pulled the trigger," he told the court. "You loaded the weapon and thought it cool to point it at Miss Henderson loaded, with the safety catch on and your finger on the trigger."

When the 620mm double-barrelled gun went off, bullet fragments smashed through the digital camera lens and into Miss Henderson's face. She fell back on the couch at their Warkworth home north of Auckland, unconscious and bleeding profusely, with unsurvivable wounds to the face.

Defence lawyer David Reece told the court Goldstone dialled 111 several times before giving up and carrying her to the car. He then went back for car keys and the gun, Goldstone said because Miss Henderson, 20, was to babysit a neighbour's child that afternoon and he didn't want the young girl finding it lying around.

By the time he got to the nearby Kowhai Medical Centre it was too late.

Meanwhile Miss Henderson's baby girl Hope was taking her first steps, with grandparents Rachel and David Beavan at their Pakiri Beach home.

The Beavans have custody of the toddler who is now 16 months of age.

Goldstone - who was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon as well as manslaughter - refused to tell police where he bought the gun.

Justice Miller said he feared repercussions from the vendor.

Mr Reece denied media reports Goldstone was a gang prospect. The gun was bought to protect the couple from people threatening to dob them in for benefit fraud.

Throughout the sentencing, Goldstone sat upright in the dock, his face flushed and eyes darting from side to side. A red SS Nazi tattoo protruded above his collar.

Speaking to the Weekend Herald after the sentencing, Mrs Beavan said a dangerous precedent had been set.

"That judge has let a little secret out because every gangster in the country is going to use that same excuse [protection from threats] because you only get three years for it - f**k all."

Although relieved Goldstone didn't get home detention, Mrs Beavan was "disgusted" with the sentence, having hoped for 10 years.

"With the evidence that stacked up it should have gone much harder," she said.

Mr Reece said his client "simply didn't know [the gun] was loaded".

But the series of photographs - which police extracted despite the smashed lense - told a different tale.

In the third, Goldstone sat with the gun cracked on his knee, cartridges clearly loaded. He said he forgot it was loaded - 115 minutes passed between the third photo and the 10th, the court heard.

"We're not talking about loading a gun a day before, or several days before," said Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins.

Mrs Beavan said Goldstone - who is not Hope's birth father - had emailed begging to see the child.

"I won't let him," Mrs Beavan said. "I don't think it's beneficial to Hope ... She's had enough people disappear and he's going to jail."