Mum finds strength to face killer

Eric Smail murdered Keith McCormick (pictured) in July 2005. Photo / Supplied

Her health may be failing, but 84-year-old Dot McCormick was not going to miss seeing her tetraplegic son's killer get his punishment.

As Mrs McCormick battled coughing fits in the public gallery of the High Court at Christchurch yesterday, Eric Neil Smail, 53, was jailed for at least 14 years for the 2005 murder of her son, wheelchair-bound Paralympian Keith McCormick.

It had been a long haul waiting for Smail to be held accountable, but Mrs McCormick said she needed to be there for the "last chapter".

It had been terrible, she said after the sentencing. "Nobody knows how many tears I have shed, because I do that on my own.

"I said I would make it to the end for [Keith]. And I've done that, so I'm quite proud of myself. I can hardly walk ... I'm so ill."

Smail was unable to convince a jury he was provoked into slitting the throat of his friend, whom he cared for part-time.

Justice Lester Chisholm said Smail was not fit for the stresses of being Mr McCormick's caregiver.

Smail was an alcoholic and struggled to cope.

But Justice Chisholm said the motivation for the killing had features that were "bizarre in the extreme" and reflected Smail's "jumbled thinking".

Defence lawyer Judith Ablett Kerr, QC, said Smail genuinely thought his friend would be better off dead.

But Justice Chisholm said the evidence was clear that Mr McCormick did not want to die and was optimistic about the future.

Smail had indicated he wanted to meet Mr McCormick's family, but Mrs McCormick said she could not tolerate that.

"I'm so sick of that man - he's ruined my last years without my son.

"I think the thing that hurt me most is the way Smail killed him. Because it was the only part of his body he could feel - his neck and shoulders. [Keith] didn't have any defence at all, because he couldn't move."

Mrs McCormick said the sentence of at least 14 years' jail was wonderful, "but I wish it was 24 years".