Justice system 'failing Kiwis'

JOHN SELKIRK

"HE'S SHOWN NO REMORSE": Friends of drink-drive victim Katherine Kennedy outside Auckland District Court after the sentencing of Warren Jenkins.

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Family of a solo mother killed by one of the country's worst drink-drivers say the system has failed them after the repeat offender was jailed for four years.

Chronic alcoholic Warren John Jenkins, 49, had been out of jail for 10 days when he crashed into Katherine "Rin" Kennedy, 46, on State Highway 2 outside Kerikeri on March 17. Tests showed he was twice the legal limit.

He had been serving a three-month term for his 16th drink-driving conviction and was indefinitely disqualified from driving.

Sentencing him in Auckland District Court yesterday, Judge Emma Aitken said Jenkins had 17 previous convictions for driving while disqualified. He had a drink-driving history stretching back to 1983, including five convictions since 2005.

He was sentenced yesterday to four years' jail with a minimum term of two years, eight months.

He had breached all his former home detention sentences.

Ms Kennedy's brother, Chris Kennedy, who is now raising her five-year-old son Matthew, told the court he did not view his sister's death as an accident.

"It was inevitable that he would continue to drive drunk. It seems like, as New Zealanders, we are being ripped off by our justice system. The system has failed us.

"What are the impacts of having people over the legal limit driving on public roads? Ask a little boy called Matthew Kennedy. Who's next to cry over their loved ones' cold, dead body?"

Mr Kennedy said he thought the charge should have been manslaughter and he urged Parliament to act to give the judiciary greater powers to control recidivists.

The judge intimated she wanted to sentence Jenkins to more than five years when she discussed whether the aggravating features of his crime could take the starting sentence over five years before she applied the discount for the early guilty plea. Both counsel agreed five years was the maximum starting point that could be used.

Jenkins crashed after an all-night drinking session in which his partner tried to take his keys off him. He prised them out of her fingers and pushed her to the ground, then drove 180km from Orewa to Whangarei, where he picked up a friend. The pair bought more wine, then continued to drive, still drinking, to Kerikeri.

About 8.40am he failed to take a left-hand bend and crashed head-on into Ms Kennedy, who had just dropped her son at school.

She died in hospital later that day.

Jenkins' blood sample showed he was twice the legal limit.

He later checked himself out of hospital and fled. Police found him in Auckland – sleeping in a car on the waterfront – two days later.

In July, Jenkins pleaded guilty to drink-driving causing death, driving with excess blood alcohol, driving while disqualified, assault and theft.

Prosecutor Scott McColgan said Jenkins was a chronic alcoholic who had a brain injury that worsened his impulsivity. He suffered the brain injury in 1994 by trying while drunk to fight a man who shot him in the head.

Another brother of Ms Kennedy, Hamish Kennedy, said outside court he would "put money on it" that Jenkins would reoffend once he was out of jail.

"The strain is made 100 times worse with the information trickling in that Rin's death was preventable, that Jenkins had been in a reprimandable position in the past."

His sister was a "special person – kind, considerate and caring". "Jenkins is the opposite. He's shown no remorse or compassion.

"People like Jenkins are a fact of life. The objective is to protect society from people like this. Someone's death was inevitable. It's just bad luck [Katherine] was in his way."

- © Fairfax NZ News