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A Hibiscus Coast woman who ran over her partner has been sentenced to home detention for recklessly causing his death, sparking dismay from the victim’s family.
Pania Durham was charged five months after Joseph Hart, 41, was critically injured by a vehicle in a carpark at Victor Eaves Park in Ōrewa early on Saturday, January 7.
When the sentence of a year’s home detention was handed down today, members of Hart’s family made their feelings about the sentence clear.
“It’s not right,” his mother said from the public gallery.
On August 15, Durham reversed an earlier not guilty plea and admitted recklessly causing the death of Hart, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
She appeared for sentence before Judge Kevin Muir in the North Shore District Court this afternoon.
Several police officers sat alongside family and supporters of Hart and Durham in the public gallery after tensions had run high at an earlier hearing, where friends of Hart’s confronting the woman outside court.
Durham has been repeatedly called a murderer by members of her community in what Judge Muir called “vile” social media posts.
That abuse from people who knew Hart sparked an application for permanent name suppression by her lawyer Allison MacMillan, who said her children had also been confronted at school after hearing their parents describe her as a murderer.
“You are not a murderer,” the judge said. “The charge you face does not involve any intention to cause harm.”
However, Judge Muir said the abuse she had suffered was “deplorable” but happened in spite of the suppression orders, and declined the application to keep her name secret, but granted suppression in favour of her children’s identities. MacMillan said she would not appeal.
“In the end the principle that justice should be open should prevail here.”
Details of what happened on the night of January 7 in the Victor Eaves Park in Ōrewa emerged for the first time the sentencing hearing.
A summary of facts accepted by the woman and provided to the Herald by the court said she and Hart had been in an on-and-off relationship for the previous three years.
Hart was charged with assault on a person in a family relationship following alleged violence towards the woman a few weeks before he died, the summary said. There were several other domestic violence incidents involving the pair.
In the early hours of the night he died, Hart and Durham arrived in separate cars at the car park of Victor Eaves Park, at the request of Hart.
Joseph Hart, 41, died after he was run over by his partner early on January 7 in Orewa.
They began discussing their relationship and she accused Hart of infidelity.
An argument erupted between the pair while the woman was in the driver’s seat of her Nissan Tiida. She went to leave but Hart reached into the car and grabbed her keys. He walked away before turning around and flinging them at her.
The keys hit Durham in the face. Crying and in pain, she collected her keys and started the car.
“When the car was already in motion with the wheels turning to the right to exit the park, Mr Hart suddenly appeared in front of the driver’s side mirror, heading for her,” the summary said.
“He then tripped up and disappeared.”
She continued driving despite being aware of the risk he could get hurt, according to the summary. Durham drove over her partner and stopped immediately when he yelled out.
She found him trapped under the car and attempted to lift up the vehicle using a jack. But the jack would not raise the car enough to free Hart.
Durham tried to call 111 but was unable to because her phone did not have a sim card. She went to a nearby property where Hart’s friend lived to get help.
Emergency services managed to free him. However, he had suffered extensive crushing injuries and went into cardiac arrest, later dying in hospital.
Durham later told police what happened was an accident and she did not mean to hurt Hart.
Hart’s mother Kathleen Hart read a victim impact statement where she said Durham should be held to account.
“I know Joseph was no angel but he didn’t deserve to die like this,” she said.
She said she suffered regular nightmares as she relives the final hours of her son’s life, and now provides support for Hart’s young son.
Hart’s sister Jessica, in her victim impact statement, said Durham had rang up the hospital when Hart was on life support and impersonated her while seeking information from staff.
Both Kathleen and Jessica thanked police for their efforts with the investigation.
“I just hope after all of their hard work that Pania is held account for her actions,” Jessica said.
Crown prosecutor Jacob Barry said Durham had realised Hart had tripped over and continued to drive off anyway.
Barry said he had no doubt she was remorseful, but he had not see her acknowledge that she had driven off knowing the risk of harm to Hart. He sought a starting point of three-and-a-half years.
A police prosecutor sought an uplift of nine to 12 months for several dishonesty charges it emerged she was also facing. Earlier she had pleaded guilty to a burglary charge after she was found in a red-stickered property on the North Shore.
MacMillan sought a starting point of between two and two-and-a-half years for the recklessly charging death charge. She said her client did not see Hart trip under the car.
MacMillan said her client was grateful to police for her time in custody as she had detoxed from methamphetamine. She had been wearing a sweat patch that continuously tests for meth which showed she had recently remained clean, MacMillan said.
“She is at least trying to make good and trying to make sure this is the end of her offending.”
MacMillan sought discounts of well over 50 per cent for remorse, grief, cultural factors and her early guilty plea.
Her lawyer said she wanted to convey to the family that Durham was sorry for what she had done and its effect on them.
Judge Muir said a report showed Durham had been using methamphetamine for about 10 years, which had badly affected on her life.
A cultural report said her mother died in a car crash when she was 6 and she became disconnected from her Māori heritage.
She suffered abuse and neglect after her mother died, the report said. It said she used methamphetamine and tried to end her life after Hart died.
Judge Muir said it was relevant Hart was facing a charge for allegedly assaulting her a few weeks earlier, which he said would have made her fearful.
He adopted a starting point of two years nine months on the recklessly causing death charge, increased by six months for the dishonesty charges.
Judge Muir applied a total of 40 per cent discount, including a 25 per cent discount for the not guilty plea and discounts for the factors outlined in what he described as her “compelling” cultural report, her meth addiction and her grief and sorrow.
He landed on a sentence of just under two years, meaning a sentence of home detention was available.
The final sentence was 12 months’ home detention, with conditions to attend drug treatment.
