New offence and mandatory term for Coward Punch killings welcomed

14th October 2016
The SST has today congratulated NZ First leader Winston Peters on his announcement of a new “Coward Punch” policy.

SST spokesman Garth McVicar said: “Reform to New Zealand’s weak sentencing in this area of violent death is long overdue. New Zealand usually leads the Australians in reform, but not in this case. Both Queensland and New South Wales introduced new laws in the past 2-3 years to cover these types of violent death. But the New Zealand Government has remained strangely silent on the issue.”

“It is clear that sentencing for manslaughter – the charge usually laid or pled guilty to in these cases – is far too weak and provides little deterrence to these gratuitous killings. A new offence is needed to capture unintentional deaths caused by violence.

“We are delighted NZ First’s policy will have a mandatory minimum term of 8 years. Without that, the criminal-friendly New Zealand judges will continue their practice of siding with the offender – not the victim – and handing down insulting and unjust sentences. That needs to be flipped on its head.” concluded McVicar. ENDS

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