KEY POINTS:
Two policemen have been sentenced to 15 months in prison for covering up for a constable who beat a relative of theirs in the back of their patrol car.
The victim fled from the alleged assault into the path of an oncoming street-sweeping truck and was killed.
Constables Reuben James Harris and Benson Lyle Murphy had initially protected colleague Constable Clinton Hill, who allegedly assaulted George Tipene Harris while off-duty in the back of their police car. Hill now faces a manslaughter charge.
Reuben Harris and Murphy pleaded guilty this month to conspiring to defeat the course of justice. Another police officer, who allegedly spoke to Hill at the scene, is also charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
Lawyers lodged an appeal immediately after the sentencing yesterday and the two men were granted bail until their next court appearance.
The court heard that following a night drinking on October 3, 2004, Hill arrested George Harris in Manukau after he attempted to grab a phone from his pocket to call a taxi.
Murphy and Reuben Harris stopped in their patrol car and agreed to take Hill and Mr Harris to the station.
Reuben Harris said Murphy got out of the car and Hill asked him to drive down an alleyway and then began assaulting the victim.
George Harris escaped and Hill gave chase. Murphy and Reuben Harris later found Hill kneeling over Mr Harris's body on Great South Rd. The victim was believed to be a second cousin of Reuben Harris and a distant relative of Murphy.
Murphy said a sergeant who arrived at the scene told him and Harris what to say in their statements to investigators, which involved leaving out the alleged assault.
In March this year, a former officer told police that Murphy had told him before the 2005 inquest that his account to investigators was false.
Police reinterviewed Murphy, who had become a recruit with the Queensland police, and Reuben Harris, who had resigned from the force in December 2006, and the pair admitted making false statements.
About 15 family members were in court to support Murphy and Reuben Harris, who has six children. About three members of George Harris's immediate family were also in court supporting the accused.
The men have agreed to testify against their former colleagues.
They have met the victim's family, who have accepted their apology.
Murphy's lawyer, Todd Simmonds, said the pair were the whistleblowers, not the main offenders.
In his sentencing, Judge Charles Blackie said he accepted that the officers were the "junior partners in this conspiracy" but were not whistleblowers as Murphy had spoken to a former police officer.
"There are two victims here. The victim's family, and the New Zealand community as a whole who have put such trust in our police officers to uphold the law and do the duty that they swore they would do upon graduating out of police college."
