Jail for hiding body

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 4

Jail for hiding body

PA Auckland Dennis Phillip Oxley, aged 19, of Manurewa, was jailed for 18 months when he appeared for sentence in the High Court at Auckland on a charge of being an accessory after the fact of murder. During a trial earlier in the month, Steven John Forsythe, aged 18, was found guilty of the murder of his brother, Tony Graham Forsythe. Evidence had been given by Steven Forsythe that his brother had often beaten him and on the day of the murder had forced him to take a drug. It was found that Oxley

had assisted Steven Forsythe to dispose of his brother’s body by weighting it with concrete blocks and dumping it in an estuary. Oxley’s counsel, Mr I. D. Tucker, yesterday made a plea for leniency. He said Oxley would be haunted for years by the circumstances of his friend’s brother’s death. Mr Justice Thorp said that in some cases the court could regard the accused’s actions as foolish and basic loyalty to a friend. However, the extent of Oxley’s actions in concealing the matter from the police took the case out of that category.