Judge was too lenient - widow

BY MARTIN VAN BEYNEN

The widow of a Canterbury science student says she has forgiven the drink-driver who killed her husband, but she wanted a harsher sentence than he received.

Phillip Kirkwood Hamilton, 41, received 12 months home detention and three years disqualification from driving when he appeared for sentence on Monday.

He admitted careless driving causing the death of cyclist Jens Richardon, 34, on August 6 last year in Springston-Leeston Rd.

Richardon's widow, Andrea Krueger, 54, shocked the Christchurch District Court during the sentencing when she approached Hamilton standing in the dock and gave him a gentle kiss and a hug after reading her victim-impact statement.

But yesterday she said Judge Philip Moran had been too lenient. Hamilton should have been made to pay reparation despite his claimed financial hardship, and the judge should have said more about Hamilton's alcohol problem.

"It gives the wrong message not only to Phillip Hamilton, but to people who get drunk and then drive in this country ... It has nothing to do with my forgiveness."

She said the death of her husband, an agricultural science PhD student at Lincoln University, had been financially devastating for her. She had to survive on borrowed money over many months and now had to think about selling her home.

"I can't pay for a gravestone for my husband," she said.

Speaking from his father's flat in Riccarton, where he will serve his home detention, Hamilton said yesterday that he was "as stunned as anyone in court"when Krueger made her public gesture of forgiveness.

Hamilton, a brewery worker, had been drinking steadily with his brother for about five hours before the accident, and he failed to stop after he realised he had hit Richardon from behind.

Listening to Krueger read her statement had been "heart-wrenching", Hamilton said. "It was very hard."

He realised how much he had hurt his own family but was not fully aware of how much he had hurt Krueger until he heard her reading her victim-impact statement, he said.

He wanted to meet her to let her know how badly he felt. He was committed to a restorative justice process, he said, but what he would say to her would be private. "I am not a criminal. I made a couple of very bad choices," he said.

When he arrived at court on Monday he had expected to go to jail and was relieved to be serving home detention.

Those who thought home detention was a "big party", as he might once have done, did not realise how difficult it was, he said. "To all intents and purposes, it is prison. It's just a bit more relaxed. I just want to be left alone to comply with my sentence."

He expected only a few family members would visit.

He wanted to offer Krueger some money in compensation but could not "pluck it out of thin air", despite owning a half-share of a mortgaged property in Southbridge with a valuation of $520,000.

He said he did not want to go into the reasons why he could not pay reparation.

As conditions of his home detention, Hamilton must:

Undertake any employment or employment training as approved by the probation officer.

Abstain from the consumption and possession of alcohol.

Participate in alcohol and drug-use treatment if recommended by the probation officer.

HOME DETENTION

1490 people are under home detention (HD) in New Zealand.

HD is a sentence that requires an offender to remain at an approved residence at all times under electronic monitoring and supervision by a probation officer. Sentences range from 14 days to 12 months.

Home detainees must wear an electronic anklet to monitor their whereabouts at all times. If they try to remove the anklet or leave the monitored property without permission, an alarm is triggered and a security guard is sent to the property.

People on HD can work outside the approved property only if authorised by their probation officer.

Offenders can apply for approved absences.

Special conditions include participation in rehabilitative programmes, having a judge monitor compliance throughout the sentence, and addressing issues that reduce the risk of further offending.

HD is about a third of the cost of sending a convicted person to prison.

- © Fairfax NZ News