Police killer loses sentence appeal

Iain Lindsay Clegg was jailed for eight years for manslaughter after the death of police officer Don Wilkinson. Photo / David Rowland

A man jailed for his role in the shooting death of an undercover policeman has lost his appeal to have his jail term reduced.

Sergeant Don Wilkinson, 46, was shot three times after he and another officer tried to install a tracking device on a car outside a suspected P lab in south Auckland in 2008.

The officers fled the scene but were chased in a car by Iain Clegg and John Skinner, the latter armed with a high-powered air rifle. Clegg and Skinner found the two police officers and Skinner shot them both, Mr Wilkinson fatally.

Clegg was armed with a weapon, possibly nunchucks or a truncheon, and hit both officers with it.

Clegg was last June convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years' jail with a minimum of four years, while Skinner was found guilty of murder and sentenced to at least 15 years' jail.

Clegg appealed to the Court of Appeal, lawyer Graeme Newell, saying he was not directly responsible for Mr Wilkinson's death and that none of the injuries he inflicted was life-threatening.

As well, the offending was highly spontaneous and events unfolded at "considerable speed'', with no evidence of forward planning, Mr Newell argued.

"The police officers had the time and opportunity to reveal themselves as police officers but, for operational reasons, chose not to do so; both Mr Clegg and Mr Skinner believed that the victims were intruders or car thieves and were not aware that they were police officers.''

But Justices Ellen France, Anthony Randerson and John Wild dismissed Clegg's appeal, saying he was an "active participant''.

"He drove the vehicle in which the police officers were 'hunted down', to use the Judge's words,'' they said.

"Mr Clegg knew from the time Mr Skinner entered the motor vehicle at the latest that Mr Skinner had a firearm and he actively participated in a joint plan with Mr Skinner to cause serious violence to one or more of the officers, using the firearm to do so if necessary.

"Mr Clegg then took an active role in the assault which followed, including using a weapon of his own against both the officers.

"Any reason there may have initially been to challenge the police officers' presence on Mr Skinner's property could not have justified their pursuit outside the property and for some 200m.''