Hunters charged in connection with shooting

Three men have been charged with breaching their hunting permits in connection with the fatal shooting of a Wellington teacher.

The Department of Conversation has charged the men over hunting after dark.

Two of the men are aged 26 and the other man is 18.

The men are due to appear in Taupo District Court next month.

The three were with Andrew Mears, of Hamilton, when he fired a shot that killed Rosemary Ives in October.

Mears, 25, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in November over the shooting.

He was sentenced in February to two-and-a-half years' jail, as well as ordered to pay $10,000 reparation.

Ives, 25, was brushing her teeth at a DOC campground south of Turangi on October 22 when she was shot through the head by Mears, who was illegally spotlighting with friends from a utility vehicle at Labour Weekend.

Police estimated the shot was fired less than 26 metres from where Ives was standing.

Mears told police he mistook Ives' headlamp for the eye of a deer.

Earlier, Mears admitted a lesser charge of careless use of a firearm in relation to Ives' death.