Finlayson and English to blame for plea bargain debacle

12th May 2016

The Sensible Sentencing Trust believes Attorney General Chris Finlayson and Finance Minister Bill English are ultimately to blame for the murder charges originally laid against the killers of toddler Moko Rangitoheriri being plea bargained down to manslaughter.

SST Founder Garth McVicar said Chris Finlayson had been the principal driver of legislation that ultimately resulted in Crown Solicitors initiating shady plea bargain deals – “such as appears to have happened in the Moko case.”

“Bill English made the stupid comment about ‘No more prisons on my watch’ which told all criminals that National had capitulated, and was backing away from its tough-on-crime stance.”

Finlayson and English between them have undone much of the good work Judith Collins and others have put so much time, effort and taxpayers’ money into, said McVicar

“It is a very sad day for New Zealand when a child’s brutal murder is plea bargained down to manslaughter driven by an ideological fixation with reducing costs ahead of any other consideration.”

“From the time of its election, this government’s message was, and should have remained, ‘if you do the crime you will do the time’. Now it appears the Finlayson / English message is, ‘If you do the crime we will do our utmost to ensure you spend as little time in prison as possible.’

“At the time this new system was implemented we predicted that New Zealand would end up with a system that the public and the victims have no faith in. Sadly our predictions are now coming to fruition.”
McVicar said shady deals and fudging the figures would never reduce crime, and it appears children are going to be the primary victims of “English ideology” as domestic violence and child abuse hits alarming proportions.

Protests are being planned at every Court at 9am on 27th June; the day Moko’s killers will be sentenced. Sensible Sentencing is calling for people interested in being coordinators for protests in their particular region to make contact via the Justice for Moko Facebook or email sstvictims@sst.org.nz

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