Young killer jailed for 20 months

Eleven-year-old Triston Papuni. Photo / Supplied

A 14-year-old boy was today jailed for 20 months and his father for two years in an emotional sequel to the shooting of an 11-year-old boy on an East Cape farm in July 2009.

Tears flowed in the public gallery of the High Court at Gisborne as Justice Forrest Miller told the boy the starting point on the charge of manslaughter was five and a half years but he was receiving a large discount because of his age, guilty plea and genuine remorse.

The sentence will be served in a youth justice facility.

Justice Miller told the father he was receiving a six-month discount on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice, because of his guilty plea and remorse.

Home detention was not a suitable option in either case.

The judge imposed permanent suppression of name for the boy, which means his father's name also cannot be published, but also noted that suppression orders had already been breached by the media in publicity about the high-profile case.

This had resulted in the boy leaving his school.

The boy was just 12 years and 252 days old when he shot another boy, 11-year-old Triston Papuni, dead during an argument while the they were staying at an East Cape farm.

He was originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty in October to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

The boy's father, who tried to cover up the killing, pleaded guilty in October to attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was originally charged with being an accessory to murder after the fact.

- NZPA