Killer Ashley Peach incapable of change - report

BY IAN STEWARD

The killer of Christchurch woman Kerry Downey was unpredictable, capable of extreme violence and incapable of change, the High Court has been told.

A psychiatric report read at the sentencing of Ashley Donald Peach, 42, yesterday said it may never be safe to release Peach back into the community.

Justice Panckhurst jailed Peach for life, with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years.

Downey's family packed the gallery of the High Court in Christchurch. Her father, two sisters, brother and two co-workers from the Cats Unloved group read victim-impact statements.

Her father, Terence Downey, told of his wife dying of cancer and just a few years later having to deal with his daughter being murdered and "dumped like a bag of rubbish".

"The city I have worked in all my life has become a place of horrible memories," he said.

The judge said that although Peach had pleaded guilty, he had not been forthcoming about what had happened.

Peach rang Cats Unloved on August 15 last year and said he would kill his cat if someone did not come and pick it up, the judge said.

Downey, 52, petite and vulnerable, arrived on August 18 about 7pm.

What occurred next was supposition, but the autopsy indicated there had been manual strangulation and sexual assault, and probably she was tied up at some stage, the judge said.

Peach took Downey's body in her car to Westmorland in the Port Hills and dumped it down a bank before abandoning the car in Spreydon. When questioned by police he denied having seen the woman, but a search of his home found cat cages and Downey's clothes.

Peach said there had been an altercation, but Downey left unscathed. He told police he went for a walk in Spreydon several days later and by chance saw a man getting out of Downey's car.

The judge said the story was "an obvious fabrication".

Downey's sisters spoke of the trauma of having to enter their sister's house and sort out her belongings.

Sister Vicky Thiele said it was "just as if she had stepped out for the day, which she had".

"Each morning when I leave my own house, I think will it be for the last time? I check that it's tidy just in case," she said.

The family spoke of correcting the view of their sister as an eccentric – "the cat lady".

Thiele said Downey was an intelligent, much-loved woman who enjoyed English writers, pink roses and BBC adaptations of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

She said she had lost "the real connections that only sisters can give".

"She is irreplaceable in my life," Thiele said.

Brother Martin Downey said Peach was a cruel, cowardly killer.

Outside court, he said the family was "bitterly disappointed" at the minimum parole period imposed.

Friend and co-worker Wendy Sisson told the court the word that best described Downey was "virtuous".

"Everything Kerry was, Peach isn't," she said.

Defence counsel Pip Hall said Peach was socially and intellectually impaired, with an IQ of only 77. It was a "tragic and senseless killing", he said.

Peach was isolated at the time and not coping, he said. "Kerry Downey became the victim and tragic focus of his disintegration."

Prosecutor Phillipa Currie said Peach had a list of previous convictions, including sexual and violent crimes.

She said she was sceptical of the remorse Peach had shown in a letter to the court.

Currie said the crime was aggravated by a degree of premeditation and Downey's vulnerability. She argued for a non-parole sentence at the upper end of the scale.

- © Fairfax NZ News