The lawyer for a woman sentenced to home detention for the five month abduction of her six-year-old son says her sentence is fair.
Kay Skelton received nine months' home detention and community work at the High Court in Hamilton today.
Her father Dick Headley, who hid the
boy in Northland, received 12 months' home detention. Another woman who took the boy has been sentenced to community work and supervision.
When sentencing the pair, Justice John Priestley took into account Skelton's eight-month-old baby and 70-year-old Headley's health problems.
The abducted boy's father Chris Jones says they got off lightly. But Skelton's lawyer Barry Hart says the punishment for his client is just.
"I don't think it was a case that was appropriate for there to be a jail term. I think society's best interests are in the result that occurred and I think the judge was very fair in adopting the course that he did."
Mr Hart said Skelton has been through a lot, including spending three months in jail for contempt of court. He says he has a lot of admiration for her, describing her as courageous.
- NEWSTALK ZB
